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Salad

Bottled Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made with vinegar, egg yolks, butter, mustard, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Bottled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Bring the vinegar and butter to a boil.

  2. In a bowl, beat together the sugar and egg yolks.

  3. Add the mustard (mixed with a little cold water) and salt to the egg mixture.

  4. Stir this mixture into the boiling vinegar, stirring constantly until it thickens without boiling.

  5. Strain through a wire sieve and transfer to a bottle or jar.

Store and serve

  1. Store in a cool place; it will keep for weeks.

  2. For use, add a little sweet cream or whipped cream for salads.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 gently in the hot vinegar, giving body and richness.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing and helps keep it stable.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, rounder mouthfeel in the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the boiling vinegar. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the mixture boils or is added too fast, the yolks can scramble. Stir constantly and remove from heat once it thickens without boiling.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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