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Salad

Cold Meat Dressing

A chilled dressing made with eggs, butter, sugar, mustard, cream, vinegar, and 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 ↓

Cold Meat Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, stir together the butter, salt, and sugar until smooth.

  2. Add the eggs and beat well, then mix in the mustard.

  3. Slowly add the vinegar while continuously beating the mixture.

  4. Finally, add the cream and stir until combined.

  5. Place the bowl in a basin of boiling water and stir until it thickens like soft custard.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken the dressing as they cook gently, giving it a custard-like body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and cream.
Cream
Adds richness and softness, mellowing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and a savoury bite that complements the eggs.

The step that matters

Thickening over boiling water. Eggs thicken between about 60 and 80°C; if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the proteins scramble and the dressing turns grainy. Stirring over gentle heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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