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Salad

Salad Dressing

A thickened vinaigrette made with flour, sugar, cayenne pepper, eggs, vinegar, water, mustard, and oil or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Prepare

  1. Mix the flour, cayenne pepper, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add the vinegar and water.

  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook the mixture over hot water until thick, stirring constantly.

  2. If using butter, add it after thickening.

  3. If using olive oil, add it very slowly while stirring.

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. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 set when gently heated, giving body to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid by absorbing water and swelling as it heats.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavor.
Sugar
Balances the acidity with sweetness.
Olive oil or butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the oil or butter. Fat added too quickly to a hot egg mixture can fail to emulsify and may curdle or separate. Adding olive oil slowly while stirring lets it disperse evenly, and adding butter after thickening keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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