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Sauce

Mayonnaise

A sweetened, thickened sauce made with sugar, flour, butter, eggs, spices, vinegar, water, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Mayonnaise

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 ↓

Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cream together sugar, flour, and butter.

  2. Add beaten eggs, red pepper, salt, and dry mustard.

  3. Stir in vinegar and water, then beat well.

Cook and finish

  1. Boil the mixture until thick.

  2. Once cooled, thin with whipped cream.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 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

Eggs
Thicken the mixture and add richness as they set when heated.
Flour
Thickens the mixture so it holds body after boiling.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rich mouthfeel.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Whipped cream
Thins the cooled mixture and adds lightness and fat.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until thick. Egg proteins thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them. Cook gently and stir, so the mixture thickens smoothly without scrambling.

Swap the mustard

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

  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 sugar, flour, butter, egg, pepper, vinegar, 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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