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Mayonnaise Without Oil

A mayonnaise made without oil, using eggs, butter, vinegar, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Without Oil

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the eggs well in a bowl.

  2. Add the dry mustard and sugar, then mix in the butter, vinegar, and milk.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and heat until it thickens to the consistency of custard.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in a pinch of salt.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 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
Egg proteins set as the mixture heats, thickening it into an emulsified, spreadable custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel in the finished sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances richness and sharpens the flavour of the sauce.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mixture so it thickens into a smooth sauce.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.

The step that matters

Heat gently in the double boiler. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so heating slowly and stirring keeps the mixture smooth. Too much heat scrambles the eggs and curdles the sauce.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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