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Mustard Dressing

A vinaigrette made with dry mustard, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and optional egg yolk.

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 ↓

Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Blend the mustard with boiling water to form a sticky paste.

  2. Add the olive oil drop by drop at first, then more boldly after a few minutes.

  3. If the mixture appears to crack or curdle, add a few drops of vinegar and mix briskly until smooth.

  4. Adjust the amount of oil as needed based on your experience with the mustard and vinegar.

Store

  1. Store the dressing in a glass jar on ice for up to 2 weeks.

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 + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 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

Dry mustard
Forms an emulsifying paste that helps hold the oil and vinegar together.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that gives the dressing its body and rich texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Egg yolk
Acts as an additional emulsifier to help the dressing stay smooth and thick.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must be added slowly at first so droplets disperse and the emulsion forms. Adding it too fast can make the mixture break, crack or curdle, which is why vinegar is used to bring it back together.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

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