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Salad

Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with butter, flour, cream, eggs, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt, pepper, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

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 ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the cream and cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then stir in the beaten eggs, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt, pepper, and red pepper.

  4. Cook in a double boiler for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

Butter
Enriches the dressing with fat, giving it a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the base with starch so the dressing becomes smooth and body-rich when cooked.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the dressing creamy and mellow.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook gently, adding structure and richness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with gentle sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler. Eggs can scramble if overheated. Gentle, indirect heat from a double boiler lets the egg proteins thicken the dressing smoothly without curdling.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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