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Hibernian Mayonnaise

A mayonnaise flavored with vinegar, mustard, and spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 503 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Hibernian Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat vinegar, sugar, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Separate the eggs; beat the yolks with mustard.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  4. Gradually pour the hot vinegar mixture into the yolks, stirring constantly.

  5. Return the mixture to a double boiler and add butter, stirring until thick.

Add the spinach and finish

  1. Remove from heat and let cool.

  2. Macerate the chopped spinach.

  3. Press the macerated spinach through a sieve and add to the mayonnaise.

  4. Fold in the egg whites when the mixture is cold.

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 + spinachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together503 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce as they heat, and whites add lightness when folded in.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the mayonnaise its tang.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture to the thickened sauce.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar, balancing the sauce's sweetness and acidity.
Spinach
Contributes green colour and a mild vegetable flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Gradually pour the hot vinegar mixture into the yolks, stirring constantly.. Adding hot liquid to egg yolks too quickly can scramble them. Pouring slowly while stirring gently warms the yolks so they thicken smoothly.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Spinachthe original

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