It’s a mayonnaise-like salad dressing. While it can be used just like mayo in general, it’s sweeter, slightly more acidic, and has a slightly different texture.

So, it’s mainly used in dishes where you’d add a bit of vinegar and sweetener to begin with. There’s some versions of potato, pasta, and egg salads that need the hint of sweetness to work right, and most benefit from a touch of vinegar. Miracle whip already has that, and at the right levels when used as a dressing that you don’t have to tweak as much.

Now, it can also be used for anything mayo can be used for, but the sweetness is a bit too high for most people’s palates compared to regular mayo. So, using it on sandwiches, or as a component of sauces or mixed dressings (like honey mustard dipping sauces, as an example) isn’t very popular.

The texture differs from most brands of mayonnaise enough to be notable, though people rarely complain about that part. Most mayo is whipped enough to be rather “fluffy”, and miracle whip tends to be thicker, with less of that mayo mouth feel.

Now, if you compare it to home made mayo, it’s essentially not the same thing at all. But regular brands of mayo are as different from home made, just in other ways.

Imo, it’s a great product. Used judiciously, it can improve damn near everything that uses mayo. I tend to use both, rather than just miracle whip, and it gives a great balance of texture to things like deviled eggs, and the salads I mentioned (with the caveat that there are multiple types of those salads, and not all will be good with MW in the mix). And I love the stuff on a cheese sandwich. Couple slices of cheddar and some miracle whip is a pretty unique combination of tastes that works very well.