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Salad

Sana Mayonnaise—salad for Slaw

A creamy mayonnaise dressing for slaw made with mustard, sugar, cream, vinegar, egg yolks, oil, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Sana Mayonnaise—salad for Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mayonnaise

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard and sugar until smooth.

  2. Add the cream and vinegar to taste.

  3. In a separate bowl, stir the egg yolks.

  4. Slowly add oil drop by drop while stirring until it thickens.

  5. Once thickened, pour in the oil in a steady stream while stirring continuously.

  6. Add cayenne pepper, salt, and vinegar to taste.

  7. The sauce should be thick like soft butter.

Serve

  1. Serve as a dressing for lettuce, celery, cold poultry, or fish.

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 and water-based ingredients, giving the sauce its thick, creamy body.
Oil
Provides the fat that, emulsified with the yolks, builds the sauce's thick texture.
Mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sauce's texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the fat.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must be added slowly, drop by drop at first, while whisking. Adding it too fast can overwhelm the yolks, so the emulsion breaks and the sauce stays thin or separates.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits less well

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