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Salad

French Dressing

A vinaigrette dressing made with olive oil, salt, paprika, vinegar, onion, and ice.

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. In a shallow bowl, combine the slice of onion and small piece of ice.

  2. Add the olive oil, salt, and paprika.

  3. Stir with a fork until the oil thickens.

  4. Gradually add the vinegar until the dressing is consistent.

Dress the salad

  1. Pour over crisp lettuce leaves in a salad bowl.

  2. Toss gently with a fork and spoon to combine.

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. 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 body of the dressing and carries the flavor of the other ingredients.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the oil and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Stir until the oil thickens. Stirring while adding the oil slowly breaks it into tiny droplets that stay suspended, so the dressing looks thick and cohesive instead of separating into layers.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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