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Sauce

Mayonnaise

A creamy sauce made from egg yolks, mustard, oil, lemon juice, sugar, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mayonnaise

Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the emulsion

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks and dry mustard.

  2. Slowly stir in the olive oil drop by drop, starting with just a few drops.

  3. Once one-third of the oil is added, mix in the salt.

  4. Continue adding oil and alternating with lemon juice or vinegar until the mixture thickens.

Finish

  1. Finish with powdered sugar and cayenne.

  2. The mayonnaise should be thick enough to spread over salad.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Egg yolks
Lecithin in the yolks emulsifies the oil and water, holding the sauce together and thickening it.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase that gives mayonnaise its rich body and smooth texture.
Lemon juice or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion as it thickens.
Dry mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help bind the oil and yolks and add a sharp flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly at the start. Oil added too fast before the yolks have emulsified can separate and fail to thicken. Adding just a few drops first lets the emulsion form, and the sauce can then take more oil.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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