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Salad

Good Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with vinegar, sugar, water, salt, cayenne pepper, cream or butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Good Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, and warm water until smooth.

  2. Add the cream or melted butter and bring to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and whisk in the beaten eggs.

  4. Cook in boiling water until thickened, then gradually add the vinegar.

Alternative method and finish

  1. Alternatively, beat the eggs and condiments together, add vinegar and water, and cook in a double boiler until thick.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the cream.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 their proteins set during gentle cooking.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the cream or butter.
Cream or melted butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Whisking in the eggs. Egg proteins can scramble if they meet very hot liquid. Removing the pan from the heat before whisking in the eggs, and cooking gently, lets them thicken the dressing smoothly.

“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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