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Salad

Boiled Salad Dressing

A salad dressing made by boiling egg yolks, mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, sugar, butter, cream, and vinegar, then folded with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Boiled 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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing base

  1. Beat the yolks of three eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, sugar, melted butter or oil, cream or milk, and hot vinegar. Mix well.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens.

Finish the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Fold the beaten egg whites into the thickened mixture.

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. 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. Pepper + vinegartop 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 the dressing as they set over gentle heat, giving it a rich, creamy body.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the dressing and add airy volume.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks and fat.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness, mellowing the dressing into a smoother texture.
Butter or oil
Adds fat that makes the dressing feel smooth and rounded on the palate.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolk mixture in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set, but if the heat is too high they scramble and curdle. Gentle, indirect heat keeps the mixture smooth while it thickens.

Swap the mustard

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

  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, pepper, sugar, 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.

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