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Salad

Butter Salad Dressing

A creamy salad dressing made with eggs, butter, mustard, cream, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Butter Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, heat the thin cream until it begins to scald.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, salt, mustard, flour, vinegar, and cayenne.

  3. Slowly add the egg mixture to the scalded cream, stirring constantly.

  4. Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens like soft custard.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool before using.

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. 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it a smooth, custard-like body.
Thin cream
Adds richness and moisture, forming the base that the egg mixture thickens.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel and flavor.
Flour
Helps stabilize the thickened mixture so it holds together without breaking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the cream and butter.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens like soft custard.. Egg proteins set when heated, but at high heat they can scramble and curdle. Gentle, steady heat while stirring keeps the dressing smooth and thickened.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, flour, vinegar, pepper. 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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