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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, mustard, olive oil, and vinegar or lemon juice.

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. Rub the hard boiled egg yolks until very smooth.

  2. Add the raw egg yolks, salt, dry mustard, and cayenne pepper; mix well.

  3. While beating continuously, add the olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice alternately.

  4. Continue beating until the mixture is stiff and light.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg yolks
Their lecithin emulsifies the oil and water, holding the sauce together as a stable mixture.
Hard boiled egg yolks
Mashed smooth, they add body and help blend the base before the oil goes in.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that, dispersed in droplets, gives mayonnaise its thick, rich texture.
Dry mustard
Contains natural emulsifiers that help stabilise the sauce and add sharp flavour.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and acid while beating. Oil must be added slowly, in small amounts, while beating continuously. Egg yolk emulsifiers can only surround small droplets; adding oil too fast lets them merge and the sauce breaks into a greasy, separated liquid.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, olive, 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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