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Mayonnaise Dressing

A homemade mayonnaise dressing made with eggs, sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, milk, and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs, sugar, salt, pepper, and mustard.

  2. Gradually add the vinegar and milk while stirring.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a double boiler and cook over low heat, stirring until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat immediately and let cool.

  2. Stir in the melted butter before serving.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook and set, giving it body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavour.
Milk
Dilutes the mixture and adds softness and richness to the texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat while stirring. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so gentle, constant stirring over low heat thickens the dressing smoothly. Higher heat or no stirring can scramble the eggs into lumps.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

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