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Salad Dressings

A set of cooked salad dressings made with eggs, butter, vinegar and sugar, one of them for chopped cabbage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 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 ↓

Salad Dressings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of eight eggs very light.

  2. Place the other ingredients (except the cream and mustard) on the stove to heat.

  3. When warm, add the eggs, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil, when it will be a smooth, thick custard.

  4. When cold, add the mustard and cream.

  5. Cook the yolks of three eggs, well beaten, with the mustard, salt, cayenne, sugar, melted butter or oil, cream or milk and hot vinegar in the double boiler until it thickens like soft custard.

  6. Stir well.

Make the butter thickening

  1. Boil half a cupful of vinegar with two teaspoonfuls of sugar.

  2. Add a little salt, pepper and mustard, if you like.

  3. Rub a quarter of a cupful of butter to a cream with one heaping teaspoonful of flour.

  4. Pour the boiling vinegar on the butter and flour mixture.

  5. Cook four or five minutes.

  6. Pour the entire mixture over a well-beaten egg yolk.

Finish and cool

  1. Turn this over one good pint of red or white chopped cabbage, and set away to cool.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

761Calories
21 gProtein
24 gFat
113 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 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
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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.

By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog]. 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Yolks thicken the dressing into a smooth custard as they cook and set with heat.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky body that softens the sharp vinegar.
Flour
Thickens the vinegar mixture so the dressing holds together without separating.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness of the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and rounds out the flavor.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs into the warm mixture. Egg proteins set when heated, so if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the eggs can scramble and leave lumps instead of a smooth custard.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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