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Bolied Salad Dressing

A thickened dressing of egg yolks, butter, vinegar, cream and seasonings, cooked in a double boiler and finished with beaten egg whites.

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 ↓

Bolied Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a double boiler, combine egg yolks, butter, vinegar, cream, sugar, mustard, and salt.

  2. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Fold in the well-beaten egg whites.

  5. Add lemon juice to taste, if desired.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a rich, smooth body.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in at the end to lighten the dressing's texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Cream
Adds moisture and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture begins to thicken. Egg yolks set as they heat, so cooking gently in a double boiler and stopping at the first thickening prevents scrambling and keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, vinegar, cream, sugar, mustard):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, cream, sugar, mustard. 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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