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Salad

Salad Dressing with Oil

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with egg yolks, olive oil, mustard, flour, sugar, salt, vinegar, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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 ↓

Salad Dressing with Oil

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar alone until warm.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, olive oil, mustard, flour, sugar, salt, and red pepper.

  3. Slowly add the warm vinegar to the mixture while whisking continuously.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and thicken the dressing as they set with heat.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth body.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the dressing becomes spoonable rather than runny.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's flavor.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.. Egg yolks can scramble if overheated or left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps heat even, and the starch from the flour thickens the dressing as it cooks.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, flour, sugar, vinegar, 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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