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Boiled Dressing

A cold dressing made with eggs, mustard, oil, milk, paprika, and vinegar, cooked in a double boiler and folded with beaten egg whites.

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 ↓

Boiled Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the eggs.

  2. In a bowl, combine the yolks with sugar, mustard, oil, salt, milk, paprika, and vinegar, adding the vinegar very slowly.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thick.

  2. Fold the mixture into the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  3. Strain the dressing and let it cool.

  4. Store in a cool place; it will keep for several days.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the dressing when cooked, and whites add lightness when folded in.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour that complements the vinegar and egg.
Milk
Adds moisture and a mild, creamy body to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar slowly. Pouring hot vinegar into the yolks too quickly can heat them unevenly, causing curdling or lumps. Adding it gradually lets the yolks warm gently and blend smoothly before cooking.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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

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