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 ↓
Cheese Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Rub the yolk of the hard-boiled egg to a powder.
Mix the egg yolk with the salad oil until well combined.
Combine and serve
Add the salt, pepper, sugar, mustard, and grated cheese to the mixture.
Work all ingredients together before pouring in the vinegar.
Serve in a crab shell if available, and enjoy with crackers and butter.
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.
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + vinegartop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Old cheese
- Provides the main body and rich, savory flavor of the salad.
- Hard-boiled egg yolk
- Crumbled and blended with oil to form a creamy, binding base.
- Salad oil
- Adds fat and smoothness, helping the yolk blend into a creamy mixture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness of the cheese.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the cheese and oil.
The step that matters
Work all ingredients together before pouring in the vinegar. Blending the yolk, oil, and cheese into a uniform paste first lets the fat emulsify and coat the particles evenly. Adding the acidic vinegar too early can cause the mixture to tighten or separate, so it should be incorporated last and gently.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, egg, vinegar, pepper, sugar):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Cucumberfits less well
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, vinegar, pepper, sugar. 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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