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Salad

Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made from eggs, sweet cream, vinegar, mustard, and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the eggs in a large bowl until very stiff.

  2. Add the sweet cream and salt, and beat thoroughly.

  3. Mix the mustard with a little vinegar to avoid lumps, then add it along with the remaining vinegar and melted butter.

  4. Beat again until well combined.

Cook and store

  1. Set the bowl in a kettle of water.

  2. Boil until the dressing thickens.

  3. Store in a cool place; it will keep for weeks.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten stiff, they form the structure that holds the dressing together.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the dressing's texture.
Sharp vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavour.
Mustard
Adds sharp aroma and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Melted butter
Adds fat, contributing richness and a smooth, silky texture.

The step that matters

Boil until the dressing thickens. Heat cooks the egg proteins so they set and thicken the dressing. Too little heat leaves it runny, while overheating can curdle the eggs and break the sauce.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, vinegar, butter. 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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