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Cream Dressing

A thickened dressing made from eggs, corn starch, vinegar, butter, mustard, salt, pepper, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cream Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the eggs or egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Mix corn starch with a little cold water and add to the eggs.

  3. Stir in the vinegar.

  4. Cook in a double boiler until thickened.

  5. Remove from heat and add butter, mustard, salt, and pepper.

Finish

  1. Let cool, then dilute with thick cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  5. Corn + mustardtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken and emulsify the dressing as they cook, giving it body and richness.
Corn starch
Stabilizes the cooked egg mixture so it thickens smoothly without curdling.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and cream.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, rounder mouthfeel and flavor.
Thick cream
Dilutes the cooked base to a lighter, creamier texture.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler until thickened. Eggs can scramble or curdle if heated too quickly. Gentle indirect heat lets the starch and egg proteins thicken the mixture smoothly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, corn, vinegar, butter, pepper, 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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