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Salad

Mustard Dressing

A simple dressing made with vinegar, mustard, corn starch, sugar, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine vinegar and sugar in a saucepan and heat until boiling.

  2. Beat together the egg, corn starch, and mustard in a separate bowl.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the boiling vinegar and sugar.

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. Mustard + corntop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the dressing as its proteins set when heated.
Corn starch
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the dressing body.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's acidity.
Mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavor.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the boiling vinegar and sugar. Egg proteins set quickly with heat and can scramble into lumps if they meet hot liquid unevenly. Stirring disperses the egg mixture as it goes in, while the starch thickens the sauce evenly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Sweet potatofits about as well

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