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Salad

Salad Dressing

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

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

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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

Make the base

  1. In a small bowl, combine vinegar and beaten egg yolks; stir well.

  2. In a saucepan, add melted butter, mustard, sugar, salt, red pepper, and black pepper.

  3. Heat the mixture on the stove, stirring until it thickens to the consistency of cream.

Finish

  1. Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Stir well to combine.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. 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 yolks
Thicken the dressing as they heat and set, giving it a creamy body.
Egg whites
Folded in off the heat, they add lightness and a softer, airier texture.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity and sharpness.

The step that matters

Heating and stirring the yolk mixture. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but too much heat or too little stirring can scramble them. Gentle heat with constant stirring keeps the dressing smooth and creamy.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

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