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Salad

Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with mustard, sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, egg yolks, olive oil, vinegar, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

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 ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In an earthen dish, combine mustard, sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, and egg yolks.

  2. Set the mixture on ice and stir with a wooden or silver spoon until well mixed.

  3. Gradually add olive oil while stirring until the mixture is light.

  4. Stir in vinegar and then fold in whipped cream.

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 + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil into the mixture, giving the dressing a thick, creamy body.
Olive oil
Provides fat that, added slowly, forms a smooth emulsion and rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
Whipped cream
Folded in at the end, it lightens the texture and adds softness and body.
Mustard
Its compounds help stabilise the emulsion and add sharp flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil gradually. Oil must be added slowly while stirring so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving the dressing oily and separated.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, egg, olive, vinegar, cream. 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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