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Boiled Dressing with Cornstarch

A boiled dressing made with water, cornstarch, eggs, lemon juice, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Dressing with Cornstarch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the thickened base

  1. Boil salt and water.

  2. Add the cornstarch, which has been stirred smooth with cold water. Boil up.

Finish and cool

  1. Add beaten eggs and lemon juice, then beat well.

  2. Cool.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

545Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
99 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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.

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

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

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Corn starch
Swells in boiling water and thickens the dressing into a smooth body.
Eggs
Thicken as they set and add richness to the dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Add beaten eggs and lemon juice. Eggs can scramble and turn grainy if they meet very hot starch without thorough beating. Beating them well and mixing them in evenly keeps the dressing smooth while the proteins set gently.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg. 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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