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White Mayonnaise

A creamy dressing made with lemon juice, vinegar, flour, sugar, egg white, cream, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

White Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine lemon juice and vinegar in a bowl.

  2. Add sugar and flour, mixing until well blended.

  3. Cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly until thick.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg white.

  2. Chill thoroughly.

  3. Once chilled, fold in the whipped cream and serve.

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

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

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Flour
Thickens the mixture as it cooks, giving it body.
Egg white
Adds lightness and airy structure when folded in stiffly beaten.
Whipping cream
Adds richness and a light, creamy texture when folded in whipped.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the acid.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly until thick. Flour thickens only when heated enough, but direct heat can scorch or curdle the mixture. Gentle, constant stirring over a double boiler heats it evenly so it thickens smoothly without lumps or burning.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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