Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix mustard, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl.
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Heat the milk to boiling point in a double boiler.
Make the dressing
Beat the eggs well and stir them into the hot milk along with the other ingredients, adding vinegar last.
Beat all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.
Cool and store
Once cold, transfer to a glass jar and store away.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 their proteins set with gentle heat, giving body and structure.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture, along with richness.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated, giving a smooth texture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and mustard.
The step that matters
Stirring the beaten eggs into the hot milk. Egg proteins set and can scramble or curdle if they meet very hot liquid without enough stirring. Adding the eggs gradually while stirring constantly keeps the mixture smooth and thickened.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, butter, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, 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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