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Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with sugar, vinegar, cream, eggs, mustard, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

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 ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Put one-half cup sugar, one-half cup vinegar, one-half saltspoon white pepper, one-half saltspoon dry mustard, and one saltspoon salt in a double boiler.

  2. Stir constantly, adding the well-beaten yolks of four eggs.

  3. When sufficiently thick, remove from heat.

Finish and serve

  1. When cold, just before serving, add one cup thick sweet cream.

  2. Add one tablespoon sugar, one-third tablespoon dry mustard, one tablespoon flour, two well-beaten eggs, and one cup vinegar.

  3. Let the mixture come to a boil; add salt to taste and butter the size of an egg.

  4. When cool and before serving, add about one cup whipped cream.

  5. If cream cannot be had, use the whites of two well-beaten eggs.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

747Calories
20 gProtein
24 gFat
110 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Salad Dressingnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Egg yolks and whole eggs thicken the dressing as they cook and set it into a smooth custard.
Flour
Starch thickens the dressing and helps keep it stable without curdling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Thick sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, creamier texture to the dressing.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while the eggs thicken. Egg proteins set at moderate heat, but if the mixture gets too hot or is left unstirred, the eggs can scramble and curdle, leaving the dressing lumpy instead of smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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