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Salad

Rich Salad Dressings

A creamy anchovy-based salad dressing with lemon, vinegar, and optional cucumber and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rich Salad Dressings

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the whipped cream, anchovy, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and tarragon vinegar in a bowl.

  2. If using, add cucumber and strong stock.

  3. Mix in the grated rind of lemon or lime, lemon pickle, thick liquor from hot pickles, chutney, and anchovy essence or light wine as desired.

  4. Mix thoroughly and serve chilled.

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. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tarragon + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Whipped cream
Forms the rich, creamy body of the dressing and carries the other flavours.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the cream.
Anchovy
Contributes a savoury, salty depth that rounds out the dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity and fresh citrus aroma.
Chutney
Brings sweetness and tangy fruit notes to the dressing.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, anchovy, pepper, lemon, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, anchovy, pepper, lemon, tarragon, vinegar. 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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