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Salad

Dkessing Foe Salad

A creamy salad dressing made with eggs, butter, vinegar, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Dkessing Foe Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put two raw eggs, one tablespoon of butter, eight tablespoons of vinegar, and one-half teaspoon of mustard in a bowl.

  2. Place the bowl over boiling water and stir until it becomes like cream.

  3. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

186Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
1 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3

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

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Mustard + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken as they cook gently, giving the dressing a creamy, emulsified body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, smoothing the texture of the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavor.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps stabilize the emulsion.

The step that matters

Stir over boiling water until creamy. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture must be stirred gently over simmering, not boiling, water. Too much heat scrambles the eggs and the dressing turns lumpy instead of smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Cucumberfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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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