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Fruit Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with eggs, vinegar, butter, and whipped cream for fruit salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Fruit Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing base

  1. In a bowl, slightly beat the eggs.

  2. Add salt, cayenne pepper, dry mustard, sugar, and cornstarch; mix until smooth.

Cook and finish

  1. Heat the vinegar until hot.

  2. Slowly add the hot vinegar to the egg mixture while beating continuously.

  3. Return the mixture to the stove and stir until thick.

  4. Remove from heat and add butter; beat until light and cool.

  5. When ready to use, fold in the whipped cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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 dressing as they set with heat, giving it a rich, custard-like body.
Heavy cream
Adds lightness and richness when folded in, softening the dressing's texture.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rounder, silkier mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the mixture as it heats, helping it turn stiff and smooth.

The step that matters

Slowly add the hot vinegar to the egg mixture while beating continuously. Adding hot liquid too fast or without constant beating can heat the eggs unevenly, causing them to scramble into lumps instead of forming a smooth, thick custard.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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