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Dressing for Cold Slaw

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with vinegar, eggs, mustard, sugar, butter, salt, pepper, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Dressing for Cold Slaw

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Dressing for Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mix the butter, salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard together.

  2. Add the beaten eggs last.

Cook the dressing

  1. Boil the vinegar.

  2. Pour the boiled vinegar over the mixture, stirring constantly.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan.

  4. Boil for a few minutes.

Cool and serve

  1. Let the dressing cool.

  2. Pour the dressing over the slaw.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as their proteins set with gentle heat.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the dressing a richer, smoother mouthfeel.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps bind the fat and liquid together.

The step that matters

Returning the egg mixture to the saucepan and boiling. The eggs thicken the dressing as their proteins set with heat. Too much heat or too little stirring can make them curdle, so keep the heat moderate and stir steadily while it cooks.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, sugar, butter, pepper. 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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