Name: Dressing for Cold Slaw
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon mustard; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 cup vinegar; ½ cup thick sweet cream (optional)

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 ↓

Dressing for Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl.
Add the butter, mustard, and pepper, and mix well.
Pour in the vinegar and cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens like a soft custard.
If using, stir in the thick sweet cream and adjust the vinegar to taste.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, pepper, vinegar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.