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Dessert

Fruit Salad Dressing

A dressing made with sugar, vinegar, egg yolks, cornstarch, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fruit Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and vinegar; dilute with water if vinegar is strong.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Cook the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the beaten egg yolks, cornstarch, salt, and white pepper.

  2. Slowly pour the boiling vinegar mixture into the egg mixture while stirring.

  3. Return the mixture to a double boiler and cook until thick, stirring constantly.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the butter until well combined.

Serve

  1. When ready to use, dilute with cream to achieve the desired consistency.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 during gentle cooking, and add richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid when heated, giving the dressing body and stability.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's tangy flavor.
Sugar
Balances the acidity with sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rounder mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling vinegar mixture to the egg yolks. Pouring hot liquid into yolks too quickly can scramble them. Pour slowly while stirring so the yolks warm gradually and stay smooth, then cook gently until thick.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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