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Salad

Boiled Salad Dressing

A boiled dressing made with butter, vinegar, eggs, milk, mustard, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Boiled Salad Dressing

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Boiled Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter with the vinegar in a porcelain or granite pan over medium heat.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool.

  3. In a bowl, beat the eggs until light, then add the mustard, salt, celery salt, pepper, and milk.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the cooled butter and vinegar mixture.

  5. Cook over low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.

  6. Remove from heat immediately and stir until smooth.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg proteins thicken as they heat, setting the dressing into a creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Milk
Dilutes the mixture and adds softness and mild sweetness to the dressing.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma that give the dressing its savory bite.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture gently and stir constantly. Eggs thicken with gentle heat, but high heat or lack of stirring can scramble the proteins, leaving lumps instead of a smooth dressing. Removing the pan from heat as soon as it thickens prevents overcooking.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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