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Salad

Salad Dressings, to Make Cold

A cold salad dressing made with mustard, salt, vinegar, egg yolk, and oil or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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 ↓

Salad Dressings, to Make Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard and salt with enough vinegar to form a paste using a fork.

  2. Add the egg yolk and stir thoroughly.

  3. Gradually add the sweet oil or melted butter, one teaspoon at a time, while mixing.

  4. If the dressing becomes too thick, add a teaspoon of vinegar as needed.

  5. Continue adding oil or butter and vinegar until you reach the desired consistency.

  6. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt or mustard if necessary.

Serve

  1. Serve the dressing over chopped cold vegetables or meats and mix well.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Mustard + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays smooth and thick.
Ground mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds sharp flavour.
Sweet oil or melted butter
Provides fat that gives the dressing body and richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and thins it as needed.

The step that matters

Adding the oil or butter. Adding fat too quickly breaks the emulsion, so the dressing separates and looks greasy. Adding it slowly, a teaspoon at a time while mixing, lets the egg yolk bind the oil into a smooth, stable dressing.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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