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Salad

Boiled Salad Dressing

A boiled egg-based salad dressing thickened with mustard, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Boiled Salad Dressing

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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a double boiler, combine eggs, vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, and melted butter.

  2. Steam until thick, stirring occasionally.

  3. Once thickened, add sugar and mix well.

  4. Thicken further with cream to desired consistency.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 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. Pepper + mustardtop 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. Vinegar + peppertop 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

Eggs
Coagulate when heated gently, giving the dressing its thick, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness and sharpens the flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rounder, richer mouthfeel.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the fat into the mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the vinegar's sharpness.
Cream
Loosens the thickened base and adds richness and a softer texture.

The step that matters

Steam until thick, stirring occasionally. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. Too much heat or no stirring can scramble them into lumps, so keep the heat gentle and stir often.

Swap the mustard

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

  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, vinegar, pepper, butter, sugar, 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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