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Vinaigrette Sauce

A vinaigrette sauce made with olive oil, tarragon vinegar, onion vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, mignonette pepper, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Vinaigrette Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine olive oil and seasonings in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the vinegars while stirring.

  3. Serve with cold meats like brawn or calf's head, or with boiled vegetables.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Olive + tarragontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the base of the sauce, adding richness and body that carries the flavour.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds sharp acidity and a sour bite that balances the oil.
Onion vinegar
Contributes further acidity and a mild savoury aroma to the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds a little sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegars.

The step that matters

Gradually add the vinegars while stirring. Oil and vinegar are immiscible, so adding the vinegar slowly while stirring breaks it into small droplets. This creates a temporary emulsion, which keeps the sauce smooth rather than separating into layers.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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