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Salad

Dressing for Cole Slaw

A creamy dressing made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Dressing for Cole Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks well.

  2. In a double boiler, combine vinegar, sugar, butter, salt, and mustard. Cook while beating continuously.

  3. When nearly done, add the lemon juice.

  4. Once thickened, remove from heat and let cool.

Finish and chill

  1. Whip in the heavy cream and mix well.

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

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

  4. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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 yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and set into a smooth, creamy custard.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and mouthfeel.
Heavy cream
Lightens the thickened base and adds a silky, rich body.

The step that matters

Cook while beating continuously in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken gently with indirect heat, but if they get too hot or sit still they can scramble. Constant beating and a double boiler spread heat evenly, giving a smooth, thickened dressing.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

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