Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Cooked Mayonnaise Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the vinegar until scalding hot.
Beat the egg yolks and whole egg until creamy.
Pour the hot vinegar over the beaten eggs.
Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly until thickened.
Add the butter and season according to the salad being served.
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.
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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
- Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a rich, creamy body.
- Whole egg
- Adds structure and body as it sets with the yolks during cooking.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat and smoothness, rounding out the sharpness of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly until thickened. Egg proteins set at gentle heat and can scramble if overheated or left unstirred. Constant stirring over steam keeps the mixture smooth and evenly thickened.
“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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