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Mayonnaise Without Oil

An oil-free mayonnaise made by whisking butter, mustard, vinegar, and eggs until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Without Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Combine butter, dry mustard, vinegar, and eggs in a double boiler.

  2. Beat the eggs lightly and add salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Stir the mixture until it begins to thicken, but do not let it boil.

Cool and serve

  1. Remove from heat, cool, and chill 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. Mustard + vinegartop 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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Proteins thicken gently when heated, giving the sauce its body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for sharp, bright flavor that balances the richness.
Dry mustard
Adds pungent flavor and helps stabilize the emulsion.

The step that matters

Stir until just thickening, without boiling. Egg proteins thicken gently at moderate heat, but high heat makes them curdle and scramble. Stirring constantly over a double boiler keeps the heat even and the sauce smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

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