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Salad

Salad Dressing with Butter or Oil

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with sugar, mustard, salt, oil or butter, eggs, vinegar, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Salad Dressing with Butter or Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Combine

  1. Mix sugar, mustard, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add olive oil or melted butter.

  3. Gradually mix in beaten eggs.

  4. Stir in vinegar and milk.

Cook

  1. Place the mixture in a double boiler over boiling water and stir until thick.

Store and serve

  1. Store in a cool place; use for salads or slaw.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Olive + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,828 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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
Proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing into a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the tang for a smoother dressing.
Sugar
Balances the acidity and sharpness with sweetness.
Olive oil or melted butter
Adds fat that gives the dressing a richer mouthfeel.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps hold the dressing together.

The step that matters

Stir in the double boiler until thick. Egg proteins thicken gently as they heat. If the mixture gets too hot or is left unstirred, the eggs can curdle or scramble, so keep the heat moderate and stir steadily until it thickens.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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