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Salad

Cooked Salad Dressing

A warm dressing made with egg yolks, mustard, sugar, vinegar, butter, and optional milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cooked Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine egg yolks, dry mustard, sugar, vinegar, and butter.

  2. Heat over a double boiler on low heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. If using, add heated but not boiling milk to the mixture and stir until combined.

  4. Add salt to taste after the dressing is done if milk is used.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 gentle heat, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that complements the eggs and vinegar.

The step that matters

Stirring over low heat until thickened. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures, so heating too fast or letting the mixture boil can curdle or scramble them. A double boiler and constant stirring keep the heat gentle and even.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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