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Salad

Slaw Dressing

A creamy dressing made with eggs, mustard, vinegar, and butter, thickened with cornstarch.

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 ↓

Slaw Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with cornstarch and sugar dissolved in a little milk.

  2. Add melted butter, mustard, salt, vinegar, cream or milk, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler, stirring constantly.

Finish and serve

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a rich, custard-like body.
Cornstarch
Stabilizes the cooked mixture so it thickens smoothly without curdling.
Egg whites
Add airy lightness when folded in just before serving.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy bite.
Sugar
Balances the acidity with sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly. Egg yolks can scramble if they get too hot or cook unevenly. Gentle indirect heat and constant stirring let the mixture thicken smoothly as the starch and yolk proteins set.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, vinegar, cream, 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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