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 ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Beat the eggs well in a bowl.
Add vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard, and butter.
Stir the mixture over low heat until it begins to thicken.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Finish
Thin the dressing with sweet or sour cream to your desired consistency.
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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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it a creamy body.
- Vinegar
- Adds the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the vinegar, giving a sweet-sour flavour.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the dressing.
The step that matters
Stir over low heat until it begins to thicken. Egg proteins set as they warm, so gentle heat thickens the dressing smoothly. Too much heat can scramble the eggs into lumps, so stir constantly and remove from heat once it starts to thicken.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, sugar, butter, cream):
- Mustardthe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Cucumberfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar, 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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