Name: Cream Dressing
Ingredients: ½ tablespoon salt; ½ tablespoon mustard; ¼ tablespoon sugar; 1 egg, slightly beaten; 2½ tablespoons melted butter; ¾ cup cream; ¼ cup 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 ↓

Cream Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine salt, mustard, and sugar.
Add the slightly beaten egg and melted butter, mixing well.
Stir in the cream and vinegar until fully combined.

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.

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).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + buttertop 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: Adds richness and helps bind the dressing into a smooth, thickened emulsion.
Mustard: Helps emulsify the fat and water, and adds a sharp, savoury flavour.
Melted butter: Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a silky texture.
Cream: Adds moisture and body, making the dressing rich and smooth.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts through the richness.

Swap the mustard

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

Mustardthe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Cucumberfits about as well

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