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Salad

Boiled Salad Dressing

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

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

Why it works: Milk and butter 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

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the milk, vinegar, pepper, sugar, butter, and sweet cream.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks and whites, along with salt and mustard.

  4. Stir constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 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. Pepper + mustardtop 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
Their proteins set and thicken the dressing as it heats.
Milk
Adds liquid and body, softening the dressing's texture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with gentle sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat, giving the dressing a richer, smoother mouthfeel.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, making the dressing smoother and creamier.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens.. Egg proteins set gradually when heated. Too much heat or too little stirring can scramble the eggs into lumps, so gentle, constant stirring keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

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