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Salad

Marie Paidar

A vinaigrette-style dressing made by cooking vinegar, water, cornstarch, salt, mustard, sugar, egg yolks, and optional butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,067 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Marie Paidar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine one cup vinegar, one cup water, two tablespoons cornstarch, one teaspoon salt, one salt-spoon red pepper, one teaspoon Coleman's mustard, one tablespoon sugar, and two egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Add a spoonful of melted butter if desired.

  3. Mix dry ingredients with the water and add to yolks.

Cook

  1. Add mixture to hot vinegar.

  2. Cook ten minutes in a double boiler.

  3. Add stiffly beaten egg whites while hot.

Serve leftovers

  1. If left over and becomes too thick, thin with sour cream.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the dressing as it heats, swelling in liquid to give body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the dressing, setting into a smooth, custard-like texture when heated.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the richness of the yolks.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar and adds mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook ten minutes in a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken gently but curdle if overheated, so the water should stay at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil. Constant, moderate heat lets the starch and yolks set smoothly.

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cream, pepper, flour, sugar, cheese, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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