Salad cream

Portion size: Makes 150ml
Prep time 10 min, plus chilling
Difficulty: easy

Gluten-free

Vegetarian

Pollyanna Coupland

Food producer, delicious.

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Learn how to make your own salad cream with our simple recipe. Here’s why this recipe for the versatile condiment is a winner…

Quick and easy: This homemade salad cream recipe has just one step and 10 minutes prep time, before leaving to chill.
Flavour boost: A pinch of MSG gives the salad cream a delicious umami boost. A squeeze of lemon juice takes it into the stratosphere.
Goes with everything: The texture is slightly looser than shop-bought salad cream, making it particularly suited to dressing salads, but it works as a dip and a sandwich filler too.

Have a crack at more homemade condiment recipes, including mayo and ketchup.

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Ingredients

2 medium egg yolks
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
½ tsp English mustard powder
¼ tsp fine salt
100ml double cream
½ tsp MSG (optional)
Lemon juice to taste

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Method

Put the egg yolks, vinegar, caster sugar, cornflour, mustard powder and salt in a large bowl, then set over a pan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water). Whisk for 5 minutes until the mixture starts to lightly cling to the sides of the bowl, then pour in the cream and whisk for a further 7 minutes. The heat should be quite high and the mixture will become airy and voluminous but will be only slightly thicker than double cream. It will thicken once it has cooled. Stir in the MSG and a squeeze of lemon juice for extra tang, then cover and chill.

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Nutrition

57kcals Calories
5.6g (3.1g saturated) Fat
0.7g Protein
1g (0.6g sugars) Carbs
0g Fibre
0.1g Salt

Cook smarter

The first commercial salad cream was created in 1914 by Heinz as a more affordable alternative to luxurious mayonnaise. Rather than using oil, which was expensive at the time, the dressing is cream and water-based and relies on cooked egg yolks to thicken it.

Find MSG in Asian supermarkets or online, and don’t be afraid to use it. Bad press has given this flavour enhancer an unduly negative reputation but monosodium glutamate is a natural product found in foods from tomatoes and parmesan to seaweed and beef. We particularly rate Honest Umami (on Ocado or from honestumami.com), which also sells seasoning mixes combining MSG with salt, sugar or chilli.