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Boiled Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made by boiling butter and vinegar, then adding beaten eggs, mustard, salt, celery salt, pepper, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Boiled 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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a porcelain or granite pan, combine vinegar and butter. Place on the stove.

  2. Once the butter is melted, remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Beat the eggs until light, then add mustard, salt, celery salt, pepper, and milk.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the cooled vinegar and butter mixture and cook for a few minutes.

  5. When it begins to thicken, remove from heat and stir 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.

  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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it a creamy, smooth body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's tang.
Milk
Dilutes the mixture and adds moisture for a looser, pourable texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture. Egg proteins set with gentle heat and can curdle if overheated. Cook slowly and remove from heat as soon as it begins to thicken, then stir until smooth.

Swap the celery

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

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

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