Name: Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 3 hard-boiled egg yolks; 2 tablespoons powdered sugar; 2 teaspoons olive oil; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons mixed mustard; 3 tablespoons cider vinegar; a pinch of cayenne pepper

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Mash the egg yolks finely.
Mix in the powdered sugar, olive oil, salt, and mixed mustard until well combined.
Add the cider vinegar and mix thoroughly.
Sprinkle in a pinch of cayenne pepper for added flavor.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Mashed yolks form the creamy, emulsifying base that gives the dressing body.
Cider vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness and richness.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Mixed mustard: Adds sharpness and aroma, and helps bind the oil and yolks together.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardthe original
Cucumberfits about as well
Tomatofits less well

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