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Salad

Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette dressing made with vinegar, sugar, butter or oil, egg, mustard, salad oil, milk, cayenne, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cooked dressing

  1. Combine vinegar and sugar in a skillet.

  2. Add butter or oil and mix well.

  3. Beat the egg and dissolve mustard in it, then add to the skillet.

  4. Cook gently, stirring to prevent curdling.

  5. If too thick, add more vinegar or a little water.

Finish the dressing

  1. In a salad bowl, mix mustard and sugar, then add oil drop by drop.

  2. Gradually mix in milk and vinegar to avoid curdling.

  3. Season with cayenne and salt to taste.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks gently, giving it a creamy body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Salad oil
Adds fat and richness, creating a smooth, emulsified texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and mildness, softening the dressing's sharpness.

The step that matters

Cook gently, stirring to prevent curdling. Egg proteins set when heated, so high heat or no stirring can scramble the egg and make the dressing grainy instead of smooth and thickened.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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