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Salad

Salmon or Lobster Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with eggs, butter, mustard, milk, vinegar, baking soda, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Salmon or Lobster Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the mustard and melted butter together.

  2. Beat the eggs well and add them to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the milk and add a small pinch of baking soda.

  4. Gradually add the vinegar and mix well.

  5. Cook gently until the mixture thickens to the consistency of cream.

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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 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. 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs thicken the dressing as they cook and give it body and richness.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the mustard blend smoothly into the mixture.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the butter into the dressing.
Milk
Adds moisture and mildness, loosening the mixture so it stays smooth.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for tang, balancing the richness of the eggs and butter.

The step that matters

Cook gently until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set with gentle heat and thicken the dressing. Too much heat can scramble the eggs into lumps, so low, steady heat and constant stirring keep it smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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