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Salad

Salmon or Lobster Salad Dressing

A dressing made with eggs, butter, mustard, milk, baking soda, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon or Lobster Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard and melted butter.

  2. Beat the eggs well and add them to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the milk and baking soda.

Cook and serve

  1. Add vinegar, then cook gently until thickened like cream.

  2. Serve with salads or as a dressing for chicken or lamb.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 gentle heat and add richness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and makes the dressing creamy and pourable.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps bind the butter into the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook gently until thickened like cream. Egg proteins thicken the liquid as they heat and set. If the heat is too high, the eggs can curdle or scramble, leaving a grainy dressing. Gentle heat and steady stirring keep it smooth and thick.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, milk, vinegar, 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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