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Salad Dressing

A custard-like dressing made with milk, butter, eggs, mustard, vinegar, sugar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Combine the milk and butter in a double boiler.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with mustard, salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper in a separate bowl.

  3. Add the yolk mixture to the melted butter and milk.

  4. Heat the vinegar separately.

  5. Gradually add the heated vinegar to the mixture.

Finish and cook

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Cook until thickened, resembling custard.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the dressing as they cook, and whites add lightness when folded in.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the dressing.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the yolks thicken into a custard.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened, resembling custard. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but if the heat is too high they can scramble. Cooking slowly while stirring keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

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