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Salad

Whey Salad Dressing

A dressing made with whey, clarified chicken fat, rice flour, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Whey Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In the top of a double boiler, mix salt, sugar, mustard, cayenne, and rice flour.

  2. Add the egg and mix again.

  3. Stir in clarified chicken fat and whey, then add vinegar.

  4. Cook over boiling water until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly.

  5. Strain and cool before serving.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Sugar + wheytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together58 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 and helps bind it into a smooth emulsion.
Rice flour
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving the dressing body.
Clarified chicken fat
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the dressing.
Whey
Provides the liquid base that dilutes and carries the other ingredients.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavor.

The step that matters

Cook over boiling water until thickened. Stirring constantly over gentle, indirect heat keeps the egg from scrambling and lets the rice flour starch thicken the dressing evenly. Overheating can curdle the egg, leaving a lumpy texture.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, rice, flour, egg, chicken, whey):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, rice, flour, egg, chicken, whey. 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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