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Salad

Lobster Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, salt, vinegar, mustard, and folded egg whites.

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 ↓

Lobster Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg whites separately until stiff peaks form.

  2. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, butter, salt, vinegar, and mustard.

  3. Set the bowl in a kettle of simmering water and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 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. Sugar + mustardtop 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the dressing as they cook, and whites add lightness when folded in.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety body to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolk base over simmering water. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. If the heat is too high or stirring stops, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, so stir constantly and keep the water simmering, not boiling.

Swap the mustard

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

  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, sugar, butter, 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.

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