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Cream Dressing II

A thickened egg yolk dressing made with vinegar, mustard, sugar, butter or oil, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cream Dressing II

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs very thoroughly.

  2. Add ½ cup vinegar, ½ teaspoon mustard, 1 tablespoon sugar, and ⅓ cup melted butter or salad oil.

  3. Place the mixture in a vessel of hot water.

  4. Let it simmer until thick and smooth.

  5. Add coarse sea salt to taste.

Cool and store

  1. Let the dressing cool.

  2. Bottle it for use.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Egg yolks
Emulsify the fat and thicken the dressing as they cook gently.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and balances the richness of the fat.
Melted butter or salad oil
Supplies fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rich body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Simmer until thick and smooth. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them. Gentle heat over hot water sets the dressing slowly and keeps it smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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