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Salad

Golden Salad Dressing, No. I

A vinaigrette made with egg yolks, mustard, corn starch, sugar, cayenne pepper, vinegar, butter, and optional garlic or onion juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Golden Salad Dressing, No. I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with salt until thick.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix mustard, corn starch, sugar, and cayenne pepper until well combined.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine boiling water, vinegar, and butter.

  2. Stir the sugar, corn starch, mustard, and pepper mixture into the boiling liquid.

  3. Once thickened, remove from heat and quickly stir in the egg yolks, beating rapidly.

  4. For added flavor, cook garlic in vinegar for 5 minutes or add onion juice.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the dressing, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Corn starch
Gelatinizes in the hot liquid, thickening the dressing into a smooth sauce.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, savoury bite that complements the eggs and vinegar.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolk proteins set when hot, so they can scramble into lumps. Removing the pan from heat before stirring in the yolks, and beating rapidly, gently warms them so the dressing stays smooth and thick.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, corn, sugar, pepper, vinegar, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, corn, sugar, pepper, 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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