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Salad

A Plain Salad Dressing

A simple salad dressing made with eggs, spices, vinegar, and cream or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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 ↓

A Plain Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the eggs until very light.

  2. Add salt, pepper, dry mustard, sugar, and vinegar.

  3. Place the mixture in a pan of boiling water and stir until thick like custard.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the cream (or butter).

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 + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing into a custard-like texture as they cook gently.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavour.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel to the finished dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture over boiling water until thick like custard. Egg proteins set gradually with gentle heat. If the pan is too hot or stirring stops, the eggs can scramble and turn grainy, so stir constantly and keep the heat controlled.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits less well

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