Name: Piquant Sauce for Salmon
Ingredients: ½ cup olive oil; 1 tablespoon pickled gherkins, minced finely; 1 tablespoon French vinegar; 1 teaspoon French mustard; 1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar; 1 teaspoon anchovy essence; ¼ teaspoon salt; a pinch of cayenne pepper; 2 raw egg yolks

Why it works: Mustard and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Piquant Sauce for Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, add the raw egg yolks and olive oil, drop by drop, mixing continuously.
Once combined, add the minced gherkins, French mustard, and the vinegars.
Blend all ingredients thoroughly with the beaten oil and egg mixture.
If not using immediately, set the sauce on ice to keep it cool.

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.

Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together901 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Shallotfits about as well
Lettucefits about as well

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