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Salad Dressing

Salad dressing made from raw egg yolks, vinegar, butter, salt, dry mustard, pepper, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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. To every yolk of raw egg add one tablespoonful of vinegar, beat thoroughly.

  2. Place on the stove and stir constantly, cooking until thick enough to drop heavily from the spoon.

  3. Take from the stove, and to every four yolks you have used, add one tablespoonful of butter. After adding butter, if there are any lumps, place on the stove just a moment and stir.

Season and serve

  1. Have ready one teaspoon salt, one-half teaspoon dry mustard, one-fourth teaspoon pepper, season to taste with this.

  2. When ready to use the dressing, have a little well-whipped cream, and thin the dressing to the desired consistency.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

114Calories
0 gProtein
12 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken as they cook and bind the dressing into a smooth emulsion.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps the yolks set.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety body to the dressing.
Whipped cream (in the method)
Lightens the texture and thins the dressing to the desired consistency.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolks until thick. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat, but overheating scrambles them into lumps. Stir constantly and remove from the stove once the dressing drops heavily from the spoon.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cabbagefits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, pepper. 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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