Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the mustard, flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.
Beat the egg yolks and add them to the dry ingredients along with the vinegar.
In a double boiler, heat the milk and butter.
Cook and serve
Add the mixture from the bowl to the double boiler and let it boil for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
If the dressing is too thick, add cream before serving.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the dressing as they cook and add richness.
- Flour
- Helps thicken the dressing and keeps it from curdling.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
- Milk
- Adds liquid and body to the dressing.
The step that matters
Stirring while the mixture boils. Egg yolks can scramble and curdle if they overheat or sit still, so constant stirring keeps the heat even and the dressing smooth while the flour and yolks thicken it.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, vinegar, milk, butter, cream):
- Potatofits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, vinegar, milk, butter, 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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