Name: Thousand Island Dressing
Ingredients: 1 cup mayonnaise dressing; 2 tablespoons chili sauce; 2 tablespoons catsup; 2 tablespoons finely chopped pimento; 2 hard-cooked eggs, cut into small pieces; 2 tablespoons chopped gherkins or olives; ½ cup whipped cream

Why it works: Sauce and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Thousand Island Dressing

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise dressing
2 tablespoons chili sauce
2 tablespoons catsup
2 tablespoons finely chopped pimento
2 hard-cooked eggs, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons chopped gherkins or olives
½ cup whipped cream

Directions

Combine all ingredients except whipped cream in a bowl.
Chill thoroughly.
Just before serving, fold in the whipped cream.

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.

Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + olivetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Olive + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,206 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,340 recipes

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

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise dressing: Forms the creamy, rich base that carries all the other flavours.
Chili sauce: Adds tang, mild heat and sweetness, giving the dressing its characteristic colour and bite.
Catsup: Contributes sweetness and acidity, balancing the richness of the mayonnaise.
Hard-cooked eggs: Add body and a soft, chopped texture that thickens the dressing slightly.
Whipped cream: Lightens the texture and makes the dressing smoother and airier when folded in.
Gherkins or olives: Provide a sharp, briny crunch that cuts through the richness of the dressing.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped cream just before serving. Whipped cream is a foam of trapped air. Folding it gently keeps that air in, so the dressing stays light. Stirring vigorously or adding it early lets the foam collapse and the dressing turns dense and loose.

“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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Thousand Island Dressing