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Salad

Boiled Salad Dressing

A custard-like dressing made with eggs, cream, butter, mustard, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Boiled Salad Dressing

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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Moisten the mixture slowly with a little cream and the well-beaten eggs.

  3. Add the melted butter and then the vinegar.

  4. Place in a double boiler, stirring constantly until it thickens like a soft custard.

  5. Remove from heat quickly to prevent curdling.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, add the lemon juice.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set into a soft custard when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the egg mixture for a smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the eggs, butter and cream.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour that complements the vinegar and lemon juice.

The step that matters

Remove from heat quickly to prevent curdling. Egg proteins set and tighten when overheated, so the mixture can curdle and turn grainy. Pulling it off the heat as soon as it thickens keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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