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Salad

Salad Dressing Without Oil

A thickened vinaigrette made with mustard, corn starch, butter, eggs, and vinegar, without oil.

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

Salad Dressing Without Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix mustard, salt, pepper, sugar, and corn starch.

  2. Add the butter and the well-beaten eggs (both yolks and whites).

  3. Place the bowl in a saucepan of hot water and cook until the dressing thickens, stirring constantly.

Finish and cool

  1. Once thickened, add the vinegar, ensuring it is not too strong.

  2. Let the dressing cool completely 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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

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 creamy body without oil.
Corn starch
Thickens the dressing as it heats, helping it set smoothly.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture in hot water. Egg proteins set at moderate heat, so the dressing must be stirred constantly over gentle heat. Too much heat can scramble the eggs and leave lumps, while too little leaves the dressing thin.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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