Name: Plain Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons best olive oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper

Why it works: Olive and vinegar 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 ↓

Plain Salad Dressing

Ingredients

3 tablespoons best olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Directions

Make the dressing

In a bowl, mix together the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Assemble and serve

Ensure the salad ingredients are fresh and crisp.
Combine the dressing with the salad just before serving.

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.

Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Vinegar + peppertop 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 base and body that carries the flavor of the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Salt: Seasons the dressing and enhances the flavor of the other ingredients.

“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.