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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made with vinegar, butter, sugar, egg yolks, mustard, salt, and optional whipped cream or olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Make the custard

  1. Heat the butter, vinegar, and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until very light.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thickened.

Finish the dressing

  1. Once done, add salt, red pepper, and mixed mustard to taste.

  2. When cooled, mix in whipped cream if desired.

  3. You can substitute olive oil for some of the butter if preferred.

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. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and emulsify the butter and vinegar into a smooth dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and body, giving the dressing a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's flavour.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma that complement the vinegar and richness of the yolks.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot they scramble into lumps. Gentle, indirect heat in a double boiler lets the mixture thicken smoothly.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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