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Salad

Salad Dressing-

A creamy dressing made from hard-boiled eggs, mustard, spices, cream, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Salad Dressing-

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 ↓

Salad Dressing-

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs for about 20 minutes until hard.

  2. Place the eggs in cold water, then remove the shells.

Make the dressing

  1. Pound the yolks in a mortar until smooth.

  2. Add the mustard, white pepper, cayenne, salt, and cream to the yolks and mix well.

  3. Gradually stir in vinegar until the dressing reaches a creamy consistency.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  4. White pepper + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Mashed smooth, they emulsify with the cream and vinegar to form a thick, creamy dressing.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the dressing's texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness and sharpens the flavor.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps stabilise the emulsion.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in vinegar. Adding vinegar slowly lets the yolk and cream emulsify gradually. Adding it all at once can break the mixture so it turns thin or separates instead of becoming creamy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, pepper, cream, 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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