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Dessert

Cooked Salad Dressing

A thickened dressing made by cooking eggs, vinegar, mustard, oil, salt, flour, sugar, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cooked Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine all ingredients.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is light and smooth.

  3. Pour into sterilized jars, seal, and store.

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. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Proteins set as the mixture cooks, thickening it into a smooth, creamy dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Flour
Starch swells with heat and helps thicken the dressing.
Oil
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Mustard
Contributes sharp flavor and helps the dressing taste balanced.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Egg proteins and flour starch thicken as they heat. If the heat is too high or the mixture is not stirred, the eggs can scramble and form lumps, leaving the dressing grainy instead of light and smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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