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Salad Dressing

A thickened salad dressing made with vinegar, sugar, flour, butter, eggs, mustard, salt, pepper, celery seed, and cream.

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

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing base

  1. Boil vinegar, celery seed, butter, and 3 cups of sugar together.

  2. Mix mustard and remaining sugar, then add flour.

  3. Beat in the eggs and gradually add the boiling vinegar mixture.

  4. Return to the stove and cook in a double boiler until thick.

Finish

  1. When nearly cold, stir in the cream.

  2. Add a few drops of butter color to improve the cream color.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it a rich, set body.
Flour
Stabilises the mixture and adds body so the dressing thickens without separating.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's tang.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and smooth texture.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler until thick. Eggs thicken as they heat but can curdle or scramble if overheated, so gentle indirect heat in a double boiler keeps the dressing smooth while it sets.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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