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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, oil, salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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, mash the raw egg yolks and hard-boiled yolks until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the oil, a few drops at a time, mixing until it resembles jelly.

  3. Once mixed, add salt, pepper, and mustard.

  4. Slowly incorporate the vinegar until the dressing is thick like cream.

  5. If it appears to curdle, chill in the refrigerator for 40 minutes and mix again.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

Raw egg yolks
Emulsifying agent that holds the oil and vinegar together as a thick dressing.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add body and richness, helping the dressing stay smooth and thick.
Oil
Provides fat that, dispersed in the yolks, gives the dressing its creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for sharp flavor and helps thicken the emulsion when added slowly.
Prepared mustard
Acts as a secondary emulsifier that helps keep the dressing from separating.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually. Oil must be dispersed a few drops at a time into the yolks so each droplet is coated and suspended. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolks, and the emulsion breaks and curdles.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

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