Skip to main content
Salad

Salad Dressing

A custard-based salad dressing made with eggs, mustard, butter, vinegar, and cream, seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Salad Dressing

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make a thick custard with the eggs, salt, pepper, mustard, sugar, butter, and vinegar.

  2. When cool, stir in the cream and cayenne pepper thoroughly.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + cidertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard and give the dressing its body and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel in the custard.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness.
Cream
Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the sharp custard base.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thick. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. If the custard overheats, the eggs can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy dressing. Cooking slowly and stirring keeps it smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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

More salad dressing recipes

Boiled 72Cream 68French 58Cooked 45Fruit 41Chicken 31 See all 528 →

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipesFrench DressingFrench Dressing58 recipes