Name: Sidney Smith's Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 2 large potatoes, passed through a kitchen sieve; 1 tablespoon mustard; 4 tablespoons olive oil; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 2 boiled eggs, pounded; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon anchovy sauce; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sidney Smith's Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Pass the potatoes through a kitchen sieve for smoothness.
Add the mustard and a generous amount of coarse sea salt.
Mix in the olive oil and vinegar.
Incorporate the pounded boiled eggs and chopped onion.
Finally, stir in the anchovy sauce.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Sieved potato forms the thick, smooth body of the dressing.
Olive oil: Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat.
Boiled eggs: Pounded yolk and white thicken the dressing and add body.
Mustard: Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil into the dressing.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce):

Horseradishfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce. 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.