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Mayonnaise Dressing

A mayonnaise dressing made from eggs, oil, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 25 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 ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Put the yolks of four fresh raw eggs, with two hard-boiled ones, into a cold bowl.

  2. Rub these as smooth as possible before introducing the oil; a good measure of oil is a tablespoonful to each yolk of raw egg.

  3. Introduce the oil by degrees, a few drops at a time.

  4. When the oil is well mixed and assumes the appearance of jelly, add two heaping teaspoonfuls of dry table salt, one of pepper, and one of made mustard.

  5. Add two tablespoonfuls of vinegar gradually.

  6. If the mayonnaise looks like curdling when mixing, set it in the ice-box or a cold place for about forty minutes or an hour, then mix it again.

  7. Place it in a pan of cracked ice while mixing.

Finish and serve

  1. For lobster salad, use the coral, mashed and pressed through a sieve, then add to the above.

  2. Keep the dressing in a separate bowl in a cold place, and do not mix it with the salad until it is to be served.

Cooked custard dressing

  1. Beat up two eggs with two tablespoonfuls of sugar.

  2. Add a piece of butter the size of half an egg, a teaspoonful of mustard, a little pepper, and a teacup of vinegar.

  3. Put all of these ingredients into a dish over the fire and cook like a soft custard.

  4. If desired, add half a cupful of thick sweet cream to this dressing; use less vinegar in that case.

  5. Heat cream almost to boiling. Stir in the flour, previously wet with cold milk. Boil for two minutes, stirring all the time.

  6. Add sugar and take from fire.

  7. When half cold, beat in whipped whites of egg.

  8. Set aside to cool.

  9. When quite cold, whip in the oil or butter, pepper, mustard and salt.

  10. If the salad is ready, add vinegar and pour at once over it.

Cabbage dressing

  1. Beat two tablespoonfuls of whipped sweet cream, two of sugar, and four of vinegar well.

  2. Pour over the cabbage, previously cut very fine and seasoned with salt.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

866Calories
20 gProtein
37 gFat
110 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saladnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Emulsify with the oil to form the thick body of the dressing.
Salad oil
Forms the emulsion with the yolks, giving richness and a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Fresh cream
Adds moisture and softness, giving a lighter, smoother dressing.
Eggs
Thicken the cooked custard base through gentle heat, giving body to the dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must go in slowly, a few drops at a time, so the yolks can absorb it. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion and the dressing curdles and separates.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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