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Salad

Slaw Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, corn starch, sugar, butter, mustard, salt, vinegar, cream or milk, cayenne pepper, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Slaw Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the yolks of 3 eggs with 1 teaspoon corn starch dissolved in a little milk.

  2. Add ½ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon mustard, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ cup vinegar.

  3. Stir in 1 cup cream or milk and a little cayenne pepper.

  4. Cook in a double boiler until thick.

  5. Fold in the 3 egg whites beaten stiff.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set during cooking and add richness.
Corn starch
Thickens the dressing as it heats, giving it body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp tang.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Egg whites
Beaten stiff and folded in, they lighten the dressing's texture.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler until thick. Egg yolks and starch thicken gently over moderate heat. Too much heat can scramble the yolks and leave lumps, so cook slowly and stir steadily until the dressing coats a spoon.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

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