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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, mustard, flour, vinegar, lemon juice, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks well.

  2. Mix in the mustard, flour, and salt.

Cook and finish

  1. Add the vinegar and lemon juice, then cook over low heat until thickened.

  2. Once cooled, thin the mixture with sweet cream to your desired consistency.

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 + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify and thicken the dressing as they set with gentle heat.
Flour
Stabilizes the mixture and helps it thicken during cooking.
Mustard
Helps bind the oil and yolk mixture and adds sharp flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances richness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and fresh citrus flavor to the dressing.
Sweet cream
Thins the cooked dressing to a pourable consistency and adds richness.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set, but high heat can curdle them into lumps. Gentle, steady heat and constant stirring keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, flour, vinegar, cream. 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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