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Salad

Southern French Dressing

A vinaigrette dressing made with olive oil, mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper, and mashed hard‑boiled egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Southern French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine olive oil, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add mustard and vinegar alternately, drop by drop, while beating continuously.

  3. Once blended, stir in the mashed yolk of the hard-boiled egg until smooth.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

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 its flavor.
Prepared mustard
Acts as an emulsifier, helping oil and vinegar stay blended together.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, bright taste.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Acts as an emulsifier that helps keep the dressing smooth and stable.

The step that matters

Adding mustard and vinegar drop by drop while beating. Oil and vinegar separate easily. Adding the liquids slowly while beating breaks the oil into tiny droplets that stay suspended, creating a smooth emulsion. Adding them too quickly can cause the dressing to split.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, pepper, vinegar, egg. 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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