Skip to main content
Salad

Dressing for Cold Slaw

A creamy dressing made with egg yolks, sugar, mustard, salt, paprika, cider vinegar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Dressing for Cold Slaw

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Dressing for Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks with sugar, mustard, salt, and paprika.

  2. Add cider vinegar and butter, then cook over hot water until thick and smooth.

Chill

  1. Set aside to chill completely before using.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + cidertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a smooth, rich body.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sugar and butter.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the dressing a silky, smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the vinegar.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook over hot water until thick. Egg yolks set at gentle heat and can scramble if overheated. Cooking over hot water, not direct heat, lets the dressing thicken smoothly without curdling.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cider, vinegar, butter. 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.

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes