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Salad

French Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made with coarse sea salt, black pepper, olive oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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French Salad Dressing

Why it works: Olive and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

French Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, stir together the salt and pepper with ⅓ cup of olive oil until the salt dissolves.

  2. Add ⅓ cup more olive oil and mix well.

Dress the salad

  1. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.

  2. Add vinegar and mix thoroughly just before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the fat base of the dressing and carries flavor across the leaves.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Add vinegar just before serving. Vinegar is acidic and can wilt delicate leaves if left on them, and oil and vinegar separate quickly after mixing, so adding it just before serving keeps the greens crisp and the dressing blended.

“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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