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Salad

Good Salad Dressing

A creamy salad dressing made with egg yolks, mustard, butter, sugar, vinegar or lemon juice, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Good Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs well.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon dry mustard, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon butter, and 2 teaspoons sugar.

  3. Stir in ⅓ cup vinegar or juice of 1 lemon.

  4. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes, beating constantly.

  5. Let it cool, then fold in ½ cup 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.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 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 cook and give it a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the cooked dressing.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness.
Whipped cream
Lightens the cooked dressing and adds softness and airy texture.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat while beating constantly. Egg yolks begin to thicken around moderate heat and can scramble if overheated. Low heat and constant beating keep the mixture smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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.

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