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Salad

Bacon Salad Dressing

A dressing made with bacon, egg yolks, flour, vinegar, water, mustard, salt, and pepper.

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

Bacon Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the diced bacon in a pan until it is pale and crisp.

  2. In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks, flour, vinegar, and water.

  3. Add the mustard, salt, and pepper to the mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into the pan with the bacon and stir over heat until thick and smooth.

  5. Allow the dressing to cool, stirring occasionally.

  6. If the dressing is thicker than cream, thin it with a little vinegar and water.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set with heat, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Flour
Stabilises the egg mixture so it thickens evenly and does not curdle easily.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the bacon fat and egg yolks.
Bacon
Adds savoury flavour and fat to the dressing, carried in the pan drippings.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture over heat until thick and smooth. Egg yolks set at moderate heat, and if they get too hot or are stirred too little they can scramble or curdle. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the dressing smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, vinegar, 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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