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Salad

Boiled Dressing

A boiled dressing made with eggs, vinegar, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the eggs lightly without separating them.

  2. Add the vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, and melted butter.

  3. Mix well and place over hot water.

  4. Stir constantly until the dressing thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Cool and serve.

  2. If the dressing is too thick, thin it with cream or olive oil as desired.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Their proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing into a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang and balances the richness.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the dressing smooth and rich in mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds gentle sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over hot water until the dressing thickens. The eggs thicken as their proteins gently set, but too much heat or too little stirring can make them scramble into lumps. Constant stirring over moderate, indirect heat keeps the texture smooth.

“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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