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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made with vinegar, sugar, butter, mustard, egg yolks, sweet cream, salt, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Prepare the parts

  1. Warm the vinegar and sugar in a saucepan until dissolved.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and mustard mixed with a little water until the butter melts.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and add the sweet cream, salt, and red pepper.

Combine and cook

  1. Combine the egg mixture with the vinegar mixture.

  2. Return to low heat and cook slowly, stirring constantly until it thickens to a light 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.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolk proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing into a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the dressing's texture.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture slowly. Egg yolks thicken as they heat but can curdle or scramble if overheated. Low heat and constant stirring let the proteins set gradually into a smooth, light cream.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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