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Cooked Mayonnaise Dressing

A mayonnaise dressing made by cooking egg yolks, mustard, corn starch, sugar, butter, cream, vinegar, and cayenne pepper.

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

Cooked Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg yolks until light.

  2. Add salt, mustard, corn starch, sugar, melted butter, and cayenne pepper; mix well.

  3. Stir in the cream.

  4. Gradually add the hot vinegar while stirring continuously.

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

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

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 cook, giving it a rich body.
Corn starch
Thickens the mixture so it sets smoothly without becoming grainy.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, softening the texture and mellowing the tang.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for a sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Gradually add the hot vinegar while stirring continuously. Adding hot liquid too fast can scramble the egg yolks, leaving lumps instead of a smooth dressing. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the yolks thicken gently and the emulsion stays uniform.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, corn, sugar, butter, cream, vinegar, 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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