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Salad

American Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made with egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, olive oil, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

American Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mash the cooked yolks until smooth.

  2. Rub in the raw yolk using an elastic bladed knife for at least 5 minutes.

  3. Add the salt, cayenne, and olive oil drop by drop while stirring rapidly.

  4. Gradually add the vinegar until well combined.

  5. Adjust the amount of oil and vinegar as needed for desired quantity.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 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. 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. Olive + peppertop 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

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed into a smooth base that gives the dressing body and a creamy texture.
Raw egg yolk
Its lecithin emulsifies the oil and water-based vinegar so the dressing holds together.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase of the emulsion, giving richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help stabilise the emulsion and add a sharp, savoury note.

The step that matters

Adding the oil drop by drop while stirring rapidly. Oil must be dispersed into tiny droplets among the yolk particles before more is added. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk's emulsifiers, so the mixture breaks and separates into a greasy, runny layer.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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