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Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with eggs, vinegar, water, mustard, sugar, salt, celery seed, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Add vinegar, water, mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Stir in celery seed before serving.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Egg proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing into a creamy body.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps hold the dressing together smoothly.
Celery seed
Contributes a warm, aromatic celery flavour to the finished dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer, smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking the thickened dressing over low heat. Egg proteins thicken the dressing as they heat, but too much heat or too little stirring can make them scramble and turn the dressing lumpy. Low heat and constant stirring let the mixture thicken evenly and stay smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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