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Salad

Italian Sauce Foe Salads

A vinaigrette made with sauce tournee, mustard, tarragon, chervil, salad oil, tarragon vinegar, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Italian Sauce Foe Salads

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of sauce tournee, 1 tablespoon of mustard, and a little chopped tarragon and chervil.

  2. Blend well while gradually adding salad oil until you have about 3 tablespoons or more.

  3. Once smooth, slowly mix in a glass of tarragon vinegar, ensuring it doesn't appear oily.

  4. Add a pinch of coarse sea salt and pour over the salad.

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 + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mustard + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together207 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 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

Sauce tournee
Forms the creamy base that the oil and vinegar are blended into.
Mustard
Helps hold the oil and vinegar together as an emulsion.
Salad oil
Supplies the fat that gives the dressing its body and mouthfeel.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar slowly. Mustard and sauce tournee help emulsify the oil, but adding vinegar too quickly can break the mixture so it looks oily and separated. Mixing it in slowly keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, tarragon, chervil, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, tarragon, chervil, 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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