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Salad

Slaw Dressing

A creamy dressing made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, salt, cream, cornstarch, mustard, vinegar, cayenne pepper, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Slaw Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks with sugar, melted butter, and salt.

  2. Stir in the cream or milk and dissolve the cornstarch in a little of the milk before adding.

  3. Add the dry mustard, vinegar, and cayenne pepper.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.

  5. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thickened.

Store

  1. Store in a cool place; it will keep for days.

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.

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

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

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

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

  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

Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the dressing, adding richness and emulsifying the fat.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff and folded in, they add lightness and airy texture.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's tangy flavour.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the dressing body.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking in a double boiler until thickened. Egg yolks scramble if they get too hot, so gentle indirect heat lets them thicken smoothly. Stirring keeps the heat even and prevents lumps and curdling.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

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