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Salad

Italian Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made with salt, cayenne pepper, tomato ketchup, olive oil, garlic, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Italian Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the salt, cayenne pepper, and tomato ketchup.

  2. Gradually add the olive oil while mixing continuously.

  3. Stir in the mashed garlic and tarragon vinegar.

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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the body of the dressing and carries richness and mouthfeel.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness, acidity and body to the dressing base.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and a sharp, herbal aroma that brightens the oil.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and flavour to the dressing.

The step that matters

Gradually add the olive oil while mixing continuously. Adding oil slowly while mixing breaks it into tiny droplets dispersed in the acidic base, so the dressing stays emulsified and does not separate.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Basilfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, ketchup, olive, garlic, tarragon, 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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