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Salad

French Dressing

A vinaigrette made with salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, cayenne, and onion juice, chilled and thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

French Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Combine salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar in a bowl.

  2. Add a pinch of cayenne and onion juice.

  3. Stir for five minutes with a piece of ice. Remove the ice.

  4. Beat the mixture until thick.

Store

  1. Keep in a cool place until ready to serve.

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. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the main body of the dressing and carries its flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the oil.
Salt
Seasons the dressing and helps bring out its other flavours.

The step that matters

Stir with ice, then beat until thick. Oil and vinegar are immiscible and separate quickly. Vigorous stirring disperses the oil into tiny droplets in the vinegar, and beating keeps them suspended so the dressing thickens and holds together. Remove the ice before beating so the mixture does not dilute.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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