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Salad

Cabbage or Chicken Salad Dressing

A simple dressing made from melted butter, cream or milk, and vinegar, thickened over medium heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cabbage or Chicken Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Combine melted butter, cream or milk, and vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens to a creamy consistency.

Serve

  1. Serve over cabbage or chicken 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.

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

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

  2. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Melted butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, and its proteins help the dressing thicken when heated.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and tang that balances the richness of the butter and dairy.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Dairy proteins can scorch or curdle if the mixture overheats or sits still. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly, so the dressing thickens smoothly instead of breaking.

“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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