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Salad

Salad Dressing Without Eggs

A creamy dressing made with butter, sugar, mustard, cream, vinegar, and cornstarch, without eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Without Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and mustard; stir until combined.

  3. Pour in the cream or milk and vinegar, mixing well.

  4. Thicken the mixture with cornstarch until desired consistency is reached.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the dressing body in place of eggs.
Cream or milk
Supplies liquid and creaminess, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavor.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, aromatic flavor and helps the dressing taste savory.

The step that matters

Thicken with cornstarch. Cornstarch thickens only when heated and must be fully cooked to lose its raw starchy taste and reach full thickness. Adding it in the wrong amount or stopping too early can leave the dressing thin or floury, so add it gradually and cook until the consistency is reached.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionfits less well

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