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Salad

Salad Dressing

A creamy salad dressing made with egg yolks, sweet olive oil, mustard, salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, thick sweet cream, and vinegar.

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

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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 egg yolks well.

  2. Slowly add the olive oil while beating continuously until thick.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the yolk mixture.

  4. Mix the mustard, salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper with the thick cream, then add to the egg mixture.

  5. Add more cream if desired.

Store and serve

  1. Bottle and cork tightly for storage.

  2. Add vinegar to taste when using the dressing.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

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

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and thicken the dressing into a smooth, rich body.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that gives the dressing its richness and body.
Dry mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds a sharp, pungent flavor.
Thick sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the dressing's texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing's flavor.

The step that matters

Slowly add the olive oil while beating continuously. Oil added too fast cannot be dispersed into the egg yolks, so the emulsion breaks and the dressing stays thin and separated. Egg yolk lecithin holds the oil droplets in suspension only when they are added gradually.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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