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Salad

Lettuce Dressings

A creamy dressing made with eggs, mustard, cream, butter, and vinegar.

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 ↓

Lettuce Dressings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Beat the eggs with sugar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add mustard, cream, and butter, then boil quickly until thick.

Thicken and finish

  1. Stir in vinegar constantly to prevent curdling.

  2. Once thick, remove from heat, strain, and set aside to cool.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Their proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing into a body that holds together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp tang of the vinegar and mustard.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps keep the emulsified mixture smooth.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness of the cream and butter.

The step that matters

Stir in vinegar constantly. Egg proteins thicken as they heat, but overheating or uneven heat makes them scramble into curds. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly so the dressing stays smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, pepper, cream, butter, vinegar. 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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