Skip to main content
Salad

Plain Salad Dressing I

A simple dressing made with egg yolk, mustard, sugar, olive oil, cream, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Plain Salad Dressing I

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mash the hard-boiled egg yolk in a bowl.

  2. Mix in the mustard, salt, and sugar until smooth.

  3. Add the olive oil gradually while stirring.

  4. Stir in the cream until well combined.

  5. Finally, mix in the vinegar gradually.

  6. Do not pour the dressing over the salad until just ready to serve.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 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

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and cream, giving the dressing a smooth, thick body.
Mustard
Helps hold the oil and vinegar together and adds a sharp flavour.
Olive oil
Provides fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds moisture and body, mellowing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and richness.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and vinegar gradually. Adding oil or vinegar too quickly can break the emulsion, so the dressing separates instead of turning smooth and creamy. Slow addition while stirring lets the egg yolk and mustard bind the liquids into a stable mixture.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, olive, 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.

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes