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Boiled Salad Dressing

A dressing made by boiling mustard, vinegar, sugar, butter, sour cream, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Boiled Salad Dressing

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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the base

  1. Mix the mustard smoothly with part of the vinegar.

  2. Add the remainder of the vinegar and the sugar.

Cook and cool

  1. Beat the egg and butter or oil together.

  2. Stir in the cream or milk, then pour into the vinegar and mustard mixture.

  3. Mix well and let it boil for a few minutes, stirring briskly.

  4. Cool before using.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the dressing as its proteins set when heated.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps hold the fat and liquid together.
Butter or salad oil
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Sour cream
Adds creaminess and mild tang, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring briskly. Egg proteins thicken the dressing when heated, but if heat is uneven they can curdle into lumps. Constant brisk stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture smooth as it thickens.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

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