Name: Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 1 hard-boiled egg; 2 teaspoons condensed milk; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon mixed mustard; 2 teaspoons melted butter; 2 tablespoons vinegar

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

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the shell from the hard-boiled egg.
Press the yolks through a sieve.
In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, condensed milk, salt, mustard, melted butter, and vinegar, then mix until smooth.

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,003 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Condensed milk + buttertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together711 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg: Yolks provide body and emulsify the dressing into a creamy texture.
Condensed milk: Adds sweetness and a thick, smooth body to the dressing.
Mixed mustard: Adds sharp flavour and helps bind the fat and vinegar together.
Melted butter: Adds richness and fat that gives the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

Swap the mustard

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

Mustardthe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Cucumberfits about as well
Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, condensed milk, butter, 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.