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Salad

French Dressing

A vinaigrette made with salt, curry powder, cayenne, Darwin vinegar, plain vinegar, and olive oil, whisked with garlic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and olive 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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub a bowl with a small piece of garlic.

  2. Add salt, curry powder, and cayenne to the bowl.

Mix the dressing

  1. Mix well and add both types of vinegar. Mix again thoroughly.

  2. Add olive oil according to taste.

  3. Beat with a fork until perfectly blended.

  4. Adjust salt if necessary.

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. Vinegar + olivetop 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
Provides the fat that gives the dressing its body and smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Supplies acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, bright flavour.
Salt
Seasons the dressing and enhances the flavour of the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Add the olive oil gradually and beat well. Oil and vinegar are immiscible, so the dressing only stays blended when the oil is added slowly while beating. Adding it all at once lets it separate into layers.

“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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