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Salad Dressing

A thick, vinegar-based dressing made with egg yolks, mustard flour, slippery elm, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

Why it works: Flour and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 525 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the parts

  1. Combine egg yolks and oil in a bowl, whisking constantly to emulsify.

  2. Soak slippery elm in ½ gallon of 50-grain vinegar.

  3. Mix mustard flour with water to form a smooth paste.

Make the dressing

  1. In a kettle, combine the emulsified egg yolks, oil, slippery elm, salt, sugar, water, and vinegar.

  2. Cook slowly for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Gradually add the arrowroot mixture while stirring.

  4. Continue cooking until the dressing thickens to the consistency of ketchup.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in oil of cloves and lemon.

Cool and bottle

  1. Transfer to cooling pans and stir frequently until cool.

  2. Strain through a 16-mesh sieve and bottle.

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. Flour + arrowroottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together525 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lemon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Mustard + arrowroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + arrowroottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 cook.
Slippery elm
Adds body and thickness to the dressing.
Arrowroot
Thickens the dressing as it cooks into a smoother consistency.
Mustard flour
Adds sharp flavor and helps stabilize the emulsion.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang.

The step that matters

Continue cooking until the dressing thickens to the consistency of ketchup. Egg yolks and starches thicken as they heat, but overcooking can curdle the yolks and break the emulsion. Stir constantly and watch the texture closely.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, olive, mustard, flour, lemon, sugar, arrowroot):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, mustard, flour, lemon, sugar, arrowroot. 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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