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Cream Dressing

A creamy dressing made with egg yolk, vinegar, mustard, milk, cream, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Cream Dressing

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan over a teakettle, beat the egg yolk with salt, sugar, cayenne, and flour.

  2. Mix in vinegar and mustard, then add to the saucepan.

  3. Stir well and add milk; cook over the teakettle for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Remove from heat and whip until cold with a fork.

  5. Add whipped cream and olive oil; if it separates, warm slightly and beat thoroughly.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cider + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and cream and thickens the dressing as it gently cooks.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the dressing.
Olive oil
Forms the fat base that gives the dressing its body when emulsified.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness.
Flour
Stabilizes the custard-like base so it thickens without curdling.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolk base over the teakettle. Egg yolk thickens when gently heated but can scramble if it gets too hot. Stirring constantly over steam keeps the mixture even, and cooling it before adding the oil helps the emulsion hold together.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, pepper, flour, cider, vinegar, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, pepper, flour, cider, vinegar, milk. 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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