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Salad

Dressing for Cold-slaw

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with mustard, sugar, salt, water, eggs, vinegar, and oil 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 ↓

Dressing for Cold-slaw

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, salt, mustard, and warm water until smooth.

  2. Stir in the oil.

  3. Heat the mixture over medium heat until it boils, stirring steadily.

  4. Remove from heat and gradually beat it into the beaten eggs in a separate bowl.

  5. Return the sauce to the heat, setting it over boiling water.

  6. Stir until smooth and thick, then add the vinegar.

  7. Allow to cool before using for slaw or cold meats.

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

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 they cook gently, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness and sweetness.
Oil
Adds fat that makes the dressing smooth and rich-tasting.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that complements the eggs and vinegar.

The step that matters

Return the sauce to the heat over boiling water. Eggs can scramble if exposed to direct high heat. Gentle heat over simmering water thickens the sauce slowly and evenly, while stirring until smooth and thick keeps it creamy rather than curdled.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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