Name: Salad Dressing Made with Butter
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter; 2 egg yolks; 1 tablespoon cold water; 3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar; ¼ teaspoon salt; a dash of cayenne pepper; ⅛ teaspoon mustard; ⅔ cup whipped cream

Why it works: Tarragon and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Salad Dressing Made with Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Cream the butter in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with cold water, tarragon vinegar, salt, cayenne, and mustard.
Cook the mixture in a double boiler until very thick.
Remove from heat and stir in the creamed butter.
Once very cold, fold in the whipped cream.

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.

Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together901 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + mustardtop 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).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a rich, emulsified body.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that makes the dressing smooth and creamy.
Whipped cream: Lightens the dressing and adds airy, soft texture when folded in.
Tarragon vinegar: Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the butter and yolks.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture in a double boiler until very thick. Gentle indirect heat lets the yolks thicken without scrambling. Direct high heat can curdle the egg proteins and ruin the smooth texture.

Swap the mustard

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

Shallotfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Chivefits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, cream. 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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Salad Dressing Made with Butter