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Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, butter, mustard, and milk or cream, thickened with vinegar or corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Salad Dressing

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 ↓

Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs until smooth.

  2. Mix in the melted butter, salt, dry mustard, sugar, and pepper.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk or cream and enough vinegar to thicken the mixture.

  4. Boil the mixture while stirring briskly until smooth, even if it curdles.

  5. If not using cream, dissolve corn-starch in the milk to help thicken.

Serve

  1. Use the egg whites to garnish the salad.

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. 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. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed yolks add richness and body, and their proteins help bind the dressing as it heats.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and a softer texture.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base that gives the dressing its pourable body.
Corn-starch
Thickens the liquid when heated, helping the dressing set to a creamy consistency.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the eggs and butter.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, aromatic bite that balances the sweetness and richness.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture while stirring briskly. Egg proteins can scramble and curdle when overheated, so constant stirring keeps heat even and the dressing smooth. Starch needs to reach a boil to thicken fully.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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