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Salad

Boiled Salad Dressing

A thickened dressing made with salt, mustard, flour, egg yolks, butter, milk, vinegar, pepper, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Boiled 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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Add the yolks of the eggs and melted butter, then mix well.

  3. Slowly add the milk and vinegar while stirring.

  4. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the fats and liquids and set into a thick, creamy texture when heated.
Flour
Thickens the dressing as its starch swells and gelatinizes during cooking.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness, smoothness and a mellow flavour.
Milk
Supplies liquid that makes the dressing smooth and pourable before it thickens.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang and balances the richness.
Mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury bite.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. A double boiler applies gentle, indirect heat, and stirring keeps the yolks evenly warmed so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, flour, egg, butter, milk, 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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