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Salad

Salad Dressing Without Cream or Oil

A creamy salad dressing made with eggs, butter, corn starch, mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar, without oil or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Salad Dressing Without Cream or Oil

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately, then combine them.

  2. Add salt, sugar, and mustard to the egg mixture.

  3. Rub the butter and corn starch together to form a cream, then stir it into the egg mixture.

  4. Place the bowl with the mixture into a saucepan of hot water, stirring constantly until the dressing thickens.

  5. Remove from heat and gradually pour in the vinegar while stirring continuously.

  6. If the vinegar is too strong, dilute it with a little water.

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

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

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + corntop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg proteins and yolks set as they heat, thickening the dressing into a creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smoother, softer mouthfeel.
Corn starch
Swells when heated, helping the dressing thicken and stay stable.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its tangy, sharp flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Heating the egg mixture while stirring. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and can scramble if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly. Gentle, steady heat and constant stirring keep the dressing smooth and thickened.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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