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Mayonnaise Dressing

A simple mayonnaise dressing made with mustard, egg yolks, salt, lemon juice, vinegar, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard and salt.

  2. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Gradually add the olive oil, starting with a few drops while stirring constantly.

  4. As the mixture thickens, thin it with the vinegar and lemon juice.

  5. Continue to add the oil and vinegar or lemon juice alternately until all is used, stirring constantly.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil into the mixture and provide the body that holds it together.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase that gives mayonnaise its rich texture when emulsified.
Mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion so the oil and liquid stay blended.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and thins the mixture as it thickens.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and thins the mixture as it thickens.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually. Oil must be added very slowly at first, while stirring constantly, so droplets are dispersed and surrounded by egg yolk lecithin. Adding too much oil at once can break the emulsion, leaving the mayonnaise oily and runny.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, egg, vinegar, olive):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, egg, vinegar, olive. 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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