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Salad

Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with egg yolks, mustard, vinegar, and olive oil or butter, thickened with cream.

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

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, mustard, salt, and sugar until well combined.

  2. In a small saucepan, heat the vinegar and water until warm.

  3. Add the warm vinegar mixture to the egg yolk mixture and cook over a double boiler until it thickens.

  4. While still hot, whisk in the olive oil or butter.

  5. Finally, reduce the mixture with cream to your desired 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 + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 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
Emulsify and thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it a creamy body.
Olive oil or butter
Adds fat and richness, helping create a smooth, velvety texture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavor and balances the richness of the yolks and fat.
Cream
Thins the thickened mixture and adds richness and a softer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolk mixture over a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat, but if they get too hot they can scramble and curdle. Gentle, indirect heat keeps the mixture smooth while it thickens.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vinegar, olive, 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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