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Salad

Cheese Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with eggs, milk, vinegar, cheese, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cheese Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Start the base

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Gradually mix the dry ingredients with the beaten eggs to prevent lumping.

Add the liquids

  1. Add the milk and stir until combined.

  2. Stir in the hot vinegar.

Cook and finish

  1. Place the mixture in a double boiler and cook until it begins to thicken.

  2. Add the cheese and continue to cook until melted.

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.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + cheesetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs set as the mixture heats, thickening the dressing and giving it body.
Flour
Starch thickens the liquid as it cooks, helping the dressing hold together.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy moisture for the dressing.
Hot vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the eggs, milk and cheese.
Cheese
Melts into the warm base, adding savory flavor and richness.

The step that matters

Cooking in the double boiler. Egg proteins thicken the dressing gently, but too much heat or too fast a cook can scramble them and make the mixture grainy. Stirring steadily over moderate heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, flour, milk, vinegar, cheese. 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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