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Salad

Boiled Salad Dressing

A boiled dressing made with eggs, sugar, salt, butter, mustard, cornstarch, milk, vinegar, red pepper, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Boiled 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 ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing base

  1. Dissolve cornstarch in the milk.

  2. Beat the eggs well and add the sugar, salt, melted butter, dry mustard, and vinegar. Mix well.

  3. Add the milk mixture slowly while stirring.

Cook and finish

  1. Set the mixture in a double boiler and stir constantly until it thickens and the cornstarch taste is gone. Do not allow it to boil.

  2. Add a pinch of red pepper to the vinegar.

  3. When cool, add a little cream to taste.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken and enrich the dressing as they set during gentle cooking.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid so the dressing becomes smooth and body-rich when heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch and eggs thicken.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Heating in the double boiler without boiling. Egg proteins set and can curdle or turn grainy if overheated, while cornstarch needs sustained heat to thicken fully. Gentle, constant stirring over a double boiler keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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