Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg yolks, butter, flour, and sugar together in a bowl.
Add the vinegar and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens like custard.
Remove from heat and stir in the Durkee's salad dressing and cream.
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.
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the dressing as they set and add richness.
- Flour
- Stabilises the mixture and helps it thicken with the egg yolks.
- Vinegar
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for smoothness and a rich mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the vinegar's acidity.
The step that matters
Cook over low heat while stirring constantly. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Gentle, constant stirring lets the yolks and flour thicken the mixture smoothly into a custard-like texture.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, sugar, vinegar, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, sugar, 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.
More salad dressing recipes
You might also like
Chicken Salad623 recipes
Tomato Salad179 recipes
Cold Slaw160 recipes
French Dressing58 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.