Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a double boiler.
Stir in the flour until smooth.
Add the milk and heat until thickened.
In a separate bowl, mix the beaten eggs with mustard, salt, sugar, vinegar, and cayenne pepper.
Combine the egg mixture with the thickened milk mixture.
Boil for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly until thick like custard.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,066 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
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth base as it heats.
- Eggs
- Set when heated, giving the dressing a thick, custard-like body.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base that thickens with the flour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
The step that matters
Boil for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Egg proteins can curdle or scramble if overheated or left unstirred. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly, letting the mixture thicken smoothly into a custard-like texture.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, egg, sugar, vinegar, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, egg, sugar, vinegar, pepper. 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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