Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add flour, mustard, salt, and sugar; stir well.
Stir in the vinegar and cook for about three minutes.
Beat the eggs and slowly stir them into the mixture.
Cook for 1 minute longer, then remove from heat and let cool.
Thin the dressing with 1½ pints of cream, adding just enough to last a few hours.
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.
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,066 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 cook and give it a rich, creamy body.
- Flour
- Thickens the dressing by absorbing liquid as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth fat base for the mixture.
- Vinegar
- Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
- Cream
- Thins the cooked dressing and adds softness and richness.
The step that matters
Stirring the beaten eggs into the mixture. Egg proteins set with heat, so if the eggs are added too quickly or the mixture is too hot, they can scramble into lumps instead of thickening the dressing smoothly. Adding them slowly keeps the sauce smooth.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, flour, sugar, butter, egg, cream):
- Shallotfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, flour, sugar, butter, egg, 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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