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Ham Dressing for Sandwiches

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with vinegar, egg yolks, mustard, pepper, and chopped ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Ham Dressing for Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, beaten egg yolks, mustard, and pepper.

  2. Stir the mixture over low heat until it thickens.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool before using.

Finish

  1. Mix in the finely chopped ham.

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

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

  4. Mustard + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 gently over low heat, giving it body.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and ham.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the dressing.
Ham
Supplies savory meat flavor and texture to the finished dressing.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolks set at gentle heat; if the heat is too high, they can scramble and curdle, leaving the dressing lumpy instead of smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, pepper, ham. 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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