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Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with vinegar, mustard, pepper, sugar, salt, butter, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the mustard, pepper, sugar, and salt with a little vinegar.

  2. Beat the eggs until frothy.

Make the dressing

  1. Bring the milk and vinegar to a boil.

  2. Add the eggs and seasoning to the boiling mixture.

  3. Remove from heat.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken when heated and help bind the dressing into a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs to the boiling mixture. Egg proteins set when heated, so pouring beaten eggs into boiling liquid can scramble them. Removing the pan from heat promptly helps keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, sugar, butter, egg, milk. 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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