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Sour Milk Dressing

A dressing made from sour milk, eggs, salt, lemon juice, and optional sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sour Milk Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add 2 eggs, ¼ teaspoon salt, ⅔ cup sour milk, 1-1½ tablespoons, lemon juice.

  2. Beat yolks with salt, add milk, then lemon juice gradually, stirring, then the stiffly-beaten whites of the eggs.

  3. For a sweet dressing, add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the whites of the eggs.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

239Calories
15 gProtein
13 gFat
16 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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 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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

Egg and lemon 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

Eggs
Yolks emulsify and thicken the dressing, while whites add lightness and body.
Sour milk
Provides liquid and a tangy, slightly acidic flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and thickens the egg mixture as it is stirred in.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness when the dressing is made sweet.

The step that matters

Add the lemon juice gradually while stirring. Acid added slowly and mixed in constantly is less likely to curdle or split the egg-and-milk mixture, keeping the dressing smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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