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Salad

Salad Dressing, for Immediate Use

A chilled salad dressing made with eggs, olive oil, mustard, vinegar, salt, cayenne, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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, for Immediate Use

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place a deep dish in snow or cracked ice.

  2. Break in 1 egg and the 2 egg whites, and beat until they begin to rope.

  3. Gradually add 1 pint of olive oil while continuing to beat.

  4. In a separate bowl, mash the 4 hard-boiled egg yolks.

  5. Mix in 1 tablespoon of mustard cooked in 5 tablespoons of water for 30 minutes, 4 tablespoons of vinegar, ½ tablespoon of coarse sea salt, and a dash of cayenne.

  6. Prepare this mixture before starting the first step, then gradually add it to the bowl.

  7. Finally, add ½ cup of sweet cream and the beaten egg whites.

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
Whole egg and whites build a beaten, ropey foam, while the cooked yolks help bind the oil into the dressing.
Olive oil
Supplies the fat that gives the dressing its body, richness and smooth mouthfeel.
Mustard
Its natural gums help stabilize the emulsion so the oil stays suspended in the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the dressing's texture.

The step that matters

Gradually add the olive oil while beating. Oil must be added slowly so each drop is broken into tiny droplets and absorbed by the egg. Adding it too fast can overwhelm the egg, so the emulsion breaks and the dressing separates.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, vinegar, 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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