Skip to main content
Salad

Slaw Dressing

A dressing made from eggs, vinegar, butter, mustard, sugar, celery seed, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Slaw Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl until well mixed.

  2. Add the vinegar, melted butter, mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper, then mix thoroughly.

  3. Stir in the celery seed.

  4. Use immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 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
Thicken the dressing as they set gently, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and a silkier texture.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar for a rounder, balanced flavour.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar and melted butter to the beaten eggs. Eggs can scramble or curdle if heated too quickly. Adding the warm melted butter and acidic vinegar gradually while mixing keeps the emulsion smooth and the dressing creamy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, butter, mustard, 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.

More slaw dressing recipes

Cold 49Hot 3 See all 28 →

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes