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Salad

Three Egg Yolk Salad Dressing

A vinaigrette made with egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, and sugar, suitable for fruit, fish, meat, or vegetable salads.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Three Egg Yolk Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Beat the egg yolks until light, then add vinegar and water.

  2. Mix mustard, flour, sugar, and salt together, then add to the liquid mixture.

Cook

  1. Cook in a rounded-bottom bowl set in a pan of water to avoid direct heat.

  2. Whip continuously with a wire egg beater during cooking.

  3. If using butter, add it after removing from heat; if using olive oil, let the mixture cool before adding.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill before serving.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing and emulsify it into a smooth, creamy body as they cook.
Flour
Stabilises the mixture so it thickens evenly and resists separating during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter or olive oil
Adds fat for richer flavour and a smoother, more rounded texture.

The step that matters

Cook gently while whipping continuously. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat but scramble if they get too hot or sit still. A water-bath bowl and constant whisking spread the heat evenly and keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, vinegar, butter, sugar, fish):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, vinegar, butter, sugar, fish. 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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