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Mayonnaise Dressing Without Oil

An oil-free mayonnaise dressing made with mustard, sugar, eggs, vinegar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Dressing Without Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Moisten the mustard with warm water.

  2. Add sugar, butter, and beaten eggs, then beat well.

Cook and chill

  1. Stir in the vinegar.

  2. Heat until thickened.

  3. Chill in the refrigerator after thickening.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Their proteins thicken when heated and bind the sauce into a smooth body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for a sharp, tangy flavour that balances the richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Ground mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.

The step that matters

Heat until thickened. Egg proteins set as they heat and thicken the sauce, but if the mixture gets too hot they can scramble and curdle. Heating gently and stopping once it thickens keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

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