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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made with egg yolk, oil, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard powder, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard powder with the egg yolk.

  2. Gradually add the salad oil, starting with a few drops and stirring constantly.

  3. As the mixture thickens, dilute it with a little lemon juice and tarragon vinegar.

  4. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  5. If the dressing curdles, take another egg yolk and slowly add the curdled mixture to it.

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. Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and water into a thick, stable dressing.
Salad oil
Forms the fat base that gives the dressing its body and richness.
Lemon juice
Thins the thickened emulsion and adds acidity for a bright flavour.
Tarragon vinegar
Thins the thickened emulsion and adds acidity with tarragon aroma.
Mustard powder
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, pungent flavour.

The step that matters

Add the oil gradually. Oil must be added a few drops at a time while stirring constantly so the yolk can surround each droplet. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, causing the dressing to curdle and separate.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, tarragon, vinegar, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, tarragon, vinegar, pepper. 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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