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Sauce

Mayonnaise Dressing

A sauce made from egg yolks, oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, sugar, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Separate the yolks of four eggs and place them in a bowl.

  2. Add one teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of mustard, four tablespoons of vinegar, and two teaspoons of sugar to the yolks.

  3. Add four tablespoons of olive oil and stir until the mixture thickens.

  4. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from heat and continue stirring until it cools.

Finish the dressing

  1. Slowly add four more tablespoons of olive oil and the remaining ingredients (lemon juice, cayenne pepper, celery salt, additional mustard, etc.) while stirring.

  2. In a double boiler, melt a piece of butter, add the mixture, stir constantly until it thickens to a custard consistency, then remove from heat.

  3. Thin the mayonnaise with cream if desired before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

276Calories
7 gProtein
20 gFat
20 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Kaufman, Nettie M. 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. See the original page.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks emulsify the oil and thicken the dressing into a stable, creamy body.
Olive oil
Adds fat that, emulsified with the yolks, gives the dressing its rich, smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps balance the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and yolks together as the dressing forms.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness to balance the vinegar and mustard.

The step that matters

Slowly add the oil while stirring. Egg yolks can only hold a limited amount of oil at once. Adding oil too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated dressing instead of a smooth, thick one.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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