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Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with eggs, chicken fat, mustard, vinegar, sugar, pepper, and sea salt.

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

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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add chicken fat or batter, mustard, vinegar, and sugar; mix well.

  3. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water.

  4. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens to a cream-like consistency.

  5. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

  6. Add an additional tablespoon of sugar 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  3. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  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

Eggs
Thicken as they cook gently, giving the dressing a creamy body.
Chicken fat or batter
Adds richness and body, helping the dressing feel smooth and full.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with gentle sweetness.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Stir continuously over boiling water. Egg proteins set when heated, so constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the mixture smooth and creamy. If left still, the eggs can scramble and turn lumpy.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, chicken, vinegar, sugar, 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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