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 ↓
Another Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Boil the eggs hard and place them in cold water.
Shell the eggs and pound the yolks.
Make the dressing
Gradually add the sugar, salad oil, vinegar, mustard, cream, and salt to the yolks.
Cut the egg whites into rings and use them as a garnish.
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.
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,424 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks are pounded to form the body of the dressing, and whites provide the garnish.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the sharp vinegar into a smooth dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk and cream mixture.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
- Salad oil
- Adds fat that gives the dressing a silkier texture.
The step that matters
Gradually add the sugar, salad oil, vinegar, mustard, cream, and salt to the yolks. Adding liquids slowly to the pounded yolks lets the yolk particles disperse and absorb them evenly, which keeps the dressing smooth instead of separated or lumpy.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, vinegar, cream):
- Mustardthe original
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Horseradishfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vinegar, cream. 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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