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Mayonnaise Dekssing

A cold egg yolk-based dressing thickened with oil, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt, cayenne, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 Dekssing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the egg yolk in a cold bowl.

  2. Add the lemon juice, vinegar, salt, mustard, cayenne, and sugar; mix until smooth.

  3. Slowly add the oil, one drop at a time, stirring constantly.

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

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

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

  3. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Lemon + mustardtop 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 yolk
Its lecithin emulsifies the oil and water, forming a stable, thick mayonnaise.
Salad oil
Provides the fat that forms the body and rich texture of the dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for sharpness and helps thin and balance the emulsion.
Mustard
Acts as a secondary emulsifier that helps hold the oil and liquid together.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while stirring constantly. Oil must be dispersed into the yolk in tiny droplets before more is added. Adding it too fast overwhelms the egg yolk's emulsifier, so the mixture splits and fails to thicken.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

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