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Dessert

Good Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with egg yolks, mustard, vinegar, sugar, warm water, salt, cream or melted butter, and cayenne pepper.

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

Good Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, mustard, and warm water until smooth.

  2. Add the cream or melted butter.

Cook

  1. Bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat.

  3. Whisk in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Cook in boiling water until thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Gradually add the vinegar.

  2. Serve cold.

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

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing and help bind it into a smooth, stable emulsion when heated gently.
Mustard
Helps emulsify the fat and water, and adds sharp flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness.
Cream or melted butter
Adds fat, giving the dressing richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cook in boiling water until thickened. Egg yolk proteins thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot they set into lumps and curdle. Cooking gently while whisking keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  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, vinegar, sugar, cream, 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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