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Salad

Plain Salad Dressing

A simple vinaigrette made with mustard, oil, vinegar, milk, sugar, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Plain Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the mustard and sugar.

  2. Gradually add the salad oil while whisking continuously.

  3. Slowly incorporate the vinegar and milk to prevent curdling.

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

Serve

  1. Add the dressing to salads just before serving or serve separately.

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Mustard
Helps emulsify the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays blended.
Salad oil
Provides fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and carries flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, bright taste.
Milk
Adds moisture and body, mellowing the acidity for a creamier dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Slowly incorporate the vinegar and milk. Adding the acidic vinegar and dairy too quickly can make the milk curdle and the emulsion break. Adding them slowly while mixing keeps the dressing smooth and evenly blended.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, milk, 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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