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Salad

Cooked Dressing II

A thickened dressing made with eggs, mustard, sugar, vinegar, milk, flour, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cooked Dressing II

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and milk, and cook over hot water until it thickens, stirring constantly.

  3. Slowly add the vinegar and butter; strain if necessary and cool.

  4. If it curdles, beat with a whisk 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 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

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook and set, giving it body.
Flour
Stabilises the thickened mixture so it stays smooth and does not separate.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavour.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the dressing richer and smoother in texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, mellowing the dressing's body.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking the eggs over hot water. Eggs thicken as their proteins set, but if they get too hot they curdle. Cooking gently over hot water while stirring constantly keeps the mixture smooth. If it still curdles, beating it with a whisk can restore a smooth texture.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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