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 ↓
Cream Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Heat 2 cups of cream in a saucepan until hot.
Add a walnut-sized piece of butter and stir until melted.
In a bowl, mix 3 teaspoons of mustard, 4 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper with a little cold cream.
Beat 4 eggs until light.
Add the beaten eggs to the mustard mixture, ensuring it is very smooth.
When the cream is hot, add the egg mixture and cook gently like boiled custard, removing from heat before it curdles.
Finish the dressing
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
While hot, add ⅔ cup of vinegar, beating until cool.
Fold in ½ cup of whipped cream just before serving.
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.
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg proteins thicken the cream into a custard-like dressing as they gently set with heat.
- Cream
- Provides fat and body, giving the dressing its rich, smooth texture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the cream.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the mustard, salt and vinegar.
The step that matters
Cooking the egg mixture gently. Egg proteins set with heat and can curdle if cooked too hot or too long, leaving a grainy texture. Removing the pan from heat as soon as the custard thickens keeps the dressing smooth.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, mustard, sugar, pepper, egg, vinegar):
- Almondfits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Sesamefits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, mustard, sugar, pepper, egg, vinegar. 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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