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Salad

Boiled Dressing

A thickened dressing made from egg yolks, vinegar, flour, and seasonings, cooked over hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Boiled Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the vinegar to the egg yolks.

  3. In another bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar, mustard, and red pepper.

  4. Stir in the water.

  5. Combine with the egg mixture.

Cook and finish

  1. Strain the mixture.

  2. Add the butter.

  3. Cook over hot water until thick and smooth.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Flour and butter 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set with heat and add richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavour.
Flour
Stabilises the mixture and helps it thicken without becoming grainy.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook over hot water until thick and smooth. Egg yolks can scramble if overheated. Gentle heat over hot water lets the starch and yolks thicken evenly into a smooth dressing.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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