Skip to main content
Salad

Made Mustard Dressing

A dressing made from English mustard, oil, sugar, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Made Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the mustard, oil, sugar, pepper, and salt.

  2. Gradually add vinegar while mixing until you achieve a smooth paste.

  3. Beat vigorously at the end to ensure proper 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. Mustard + vinegartop 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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 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

English mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the dressing.
Salad oil
Adds fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rich body.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and thins the mustard into a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar gradually. Adding vinegar slowly while mixing lets the mustard and oil emulsify into a smooth paste. Pouring it in all at once can leave the mixture grainy or split.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cabbagefits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

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

More mustard dressing recipes

Honey 3 See all 28 →

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes