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Salad

Salad Dressing

A creamy salad dressing made with vinegar, sugar, egg yolks, mustard, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

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

  1. Heat the vinegar in a granite basin on the stove.

  2. Once hot, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and mix in a little flour for thickening.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the hot vinegar, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  5. Dissolve the mustard in a little hot water and add it to the mixture, stirring well.

  6. Remove from heat and gradually add the butter, stirring until fully incorporated.

  7. Add the salt, pepper, and curry powder, mixing well.

  8. If using, stir in the cream until combined.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set when heated, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture when stirred into the warm base.
Flour
Helps thicken the egg mixture and stabilise it against curdling.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture into the hot vinegar, stirring constantly. Egg yolks scramble if they meet heat too quickly or unevenly. Constant stirring spreads the heat so the mixture thickens smoothly rather than curdling.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, egg, flour, butter, pepper, 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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