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Boiled Salad Dressing

A thickened dressing made by cooking butter, flour, egg, mustard, pepper, and vinegar, then cooled and thinned with cream or oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Boiled 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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter or oil over low heat.

  2. Stir in the flour until well combined.

  3. Add the beaten egg and mix thoroughly.

  4. Incorporate the mustard and pepper, stirring continuously.

  5. Gradually add the vinegar, stirring until the mixture thickens and the flour is cooked.

  6. Season with salt to taste.

Chill and finish

  1. Allow to cool, then refrigerate.

  2. Before serving, mix in whipped cream or olive oil to achieve a mayonnaise-like consistency.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it thicken into a creamy emulsion as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the dressing as it cooks, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the egg and fat.
Butter or oil
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.

The step that matters

Gradually add the vinegar, stirring until the mixture thickens and the flour is cooked. Adding vinegar too fast or heating too hard can curdle the egg. Stirring constantly over gentle heat lets the egg and flour thicken smoothly while the starch fully cooks, removing any raw flour taste.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, pepper, vinegar, cream):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, pepper, 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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