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Salad

Cream Salad Dressing

A dressing made from egg yolks, corn starch, mustard, sugar, spices, vinegar, butter or oil, and whipped cream, served over chicken and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Cream Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the yolks of 4 eggs, corn starch, mustard, sugar, black pepper, red pepper, and a small portion of vinegar.

  2. Heat the mixture until it boils and thickens, then gradually add the remaining vinegar.

  3. Once cooked and cooled, add salt to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Rub the yolks of 4 hard-boiled eggs with butter or oil.

  2. Gradually mix in the cooked dressing and strain through a sieve.

  3. Keep the dressing on ice until ready to use.

  4. Fold in 1 pint of whipped cream.

  5. Pour over chicken and celery, mixing 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.

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. Mustard + peppertop 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. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing and add richness as they set during cooking.
Corn starch
Thickens the cooked dressing so it holds its body when cooled.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the rich yolks and cream.
Whipped cream
Lightens the dressing and adds a soft, creamy texture.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour that complements the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Heating the yolk mixture until it boils and thickens. Egg yolks and starch must be heated enough to thicken the mixture, but if it is overheated or stirred too little, the yolks can scramble and curdle. Adding the vinegar gradually keeps the mixture smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, corn, sugar, pepper, 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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