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Mayonnaise Dressing Without Oil

A mayonnaise dressing made without oil, using sugar, egg, vinegar, mustard, flour, salt, cayenne, butter, and cream.

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 Without Oil

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, beaten egg(s), vinegar, mustard, flour, salt, and cayenne.

  2. Stir constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens. If using multiple yolks, omit the flour.

  3. Once thickened, remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.

  4. Add cream to taste before serving.

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks and gives it an emulsified, creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished dressing.
Flour
Helps stabilise the thickening so the dressing sets more evenly without curdling.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its tangy, sharp flavour.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over low heat until thickened. Egg proteins set as they heat, so if the mixture gets too hot or is left unstirred, the eggs can scramble and curdle. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard-like base smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

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