Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
In a bowl, beat the yolks of 2 raw eggs with 1 teaspoon of mustard mixed with water.
Slowly add olive oil drop by drop while stirring constantly until thick.
Mix in 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon and beat well.
If the dressing is too thick, thin it with a little sweet cream.
Serve
Serve with lettuce, celery, or potato, and garnish with nasturtium blossoms.
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.
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Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,580 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,950 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,559 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify the oil and water so the dressing stays smooth and thick.
- Olive oil
- Provides fat and body, thickening the dressing as it is whisked in.
- Made mustard
- Helps stabilize the emulsion so the oil stays suspended in the dressing.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts the richness of the oil.
The step that matters
Adding the olive oil. Oil must be added drop by drop while stirring constantly. Adding it too fast overwhelms the egg yolks, so the emulsion breaks and the dressing separates instead of thickening.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, olive, sugar, cream, lettuce):
- Avocadofits better
- Lemonthe original
- Cherryfits about as well
- Vanillafits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, olive, sugar, cream, lettuce. 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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