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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg, cream, mustard, sugar, butter, vinegar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the beaten egg, salt, cream or milk, mustard, cayenne, sugar, and melted butter.

  2. Gradually add the vinegar while stirring.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and stir until it thickens.

Chill

  1. Chill thoroughly before using.

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. Cream + buttertop 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Emulsifies and thickens the dressing as it cooks, giving it body.
Cream or rich milk
Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the dressing.
Melted butter
Contributes fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps stabilise the emulsion.

The step that matters

Stir over the double boiler until it thickens. Egg proteins thicken gently with indirect heat. If the mixture gets too hot, the eggs can scramble and the dressing will turn lumpy and grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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