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Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made with vinegar, butter, sugar, eggs, cream, mustard, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine vinegar, butter, and sugar in a saucepan and boil.

  2. Beat egg yolks or whole eggs with cream in a bowl.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the boiled vinegar mixture.

  4. Stir in mustard and celery seed.

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.

  1. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set with heat, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the dressing's sharpness.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that complements the vinegar and eggs.

The step that matters

Add the egg mixture to the boiled vinegar mixture. Eggs thicken when heated but can scramble if they meet hot liquid too quickly. Adding the egg mixture gradually while stirring, and keeping the heat moderate, helps keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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