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Boiled Mayonnaise Without Oil

A mayonnaise made by whisking egg, mustard, salt, sugar, pepper, and hot vinegar until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Boiled Mayonnaise Without Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg, then add mustard, salt, sugar, and pepper.

Thicken and serve

  1. Slowly pour the hot vinegar into the egg mixture while whisking continuously until thickened.

  2. Serve immediately or refrigerate for later use.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the sauce its tangy flavor.
Egg
Its proteins thicken as they warm, giving the sauce its body.
Mustard
Helps hold the mixture together and adds a sharp, savory flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the hot vinegar while whisking continuously. Egg proteins thicken as they warm, so too much heat added too fast can scramble them into lumps. Pouring slowly while whisking spreads the heat evenly through the egg, producing a smooth, thick sauce.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits less well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, sugar, 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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