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Salad

Salad Dressing

A creamy salad dressing made with hard‑boiled and raw egg yolks, mustard, vinegar, and whipped cream.

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 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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the hard-boiled yolk, mustard, salt, and pepper until well combined.

  2. Add the raw yolk and beat well.

  3. Stir in the vinegar and whipped cream until smooth.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Hard-boiled egg yolk
Adds body and a rich, mellow base to the dressing.
Raw egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the dressing into a smooth, thick mixture.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and a creamy, light texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps the yolks blend smoothly.

The step that matters

Beating in the raw yolk. Raw yolk must be beaten thoroughly into the mashed yolk mixture so it blends evenly. Proper blending keeps the dressing smooth and prevents lumps or streaks of raw yolk.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Horseradishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, vinegar, 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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