Name: Salad Dressing for Chopped Cabbage or Lettuce
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 2 teaspoons black pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon mustard; 3 tablespoons melted butter; 6 teaspoons sweet cream; 1 cup good vinegar

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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 for Chopped Cabbage or Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the eggs, black pepper, salt, mustard, melted butter, sweet cream, and vinegar.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and resembles 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.

Mustard + vinegartop 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).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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: Egg proteins set as the mixture heats, thickening the dressing into a creamy consistency.
Melted butter: Adds fat, giving the dressing richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Sweet cream: Adds fat and body, making the dressing creamier and milder in tang.
Vinegar: Supplies acidity, giving the dressing its sharp, tangy flavor.
Mustard: Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the fat into the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Egg proteins set at gentle temperatures, so low heat with constant stirring keeps the dressing smooth. Higher heat or pauses can scramble the eggs into lumps.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Potatofits about as well
Mustardthe original
Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter, cream, vinegar. 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 for Chopped Cabbage or Lettuce