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Mayonnaise Dressing

An egg yolk dressing thickened with oil, lemon juice, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Have all utensils and ingredients cold. In very hot weather only, set the dish in which the dressing is made on chopped ice or in ice water. Use a soup plate with a silver or wooden fork, or a bowl with a revolving egg beater.

  2. Beat the yolk of one raw egg with salt, then add ½–1 teaspoon of lemon juice and mix well.

Make the dressing

  1. Add oil drop by drop at first, stirring constantly (one way, some say). After a little, the oil may be added faster.

  2. When the mixture becomes thick, stir in a little lemon juice. Do not allow it to get too thick before adding lemon juice. When done the dressing should drop, not pour, from a spoon.

Rescue curdling

  1. If the mixture shows signs of curdling, set the dish on ice, continue to stir, and if it does not become smooth then add a teaspoon of cream or a little egg white or a few drops of lemon juice, beating well.

  2. Or, take another yolk, begin again more carefully, and when well started add the curdled portion slowly.

  3. If a hard‑boiled yolk is crushed and worked smooth with a spatula and mixed thoroughly with the raw yolk, the dressing is not so apt to curdle and the oil may be added a little more rapidly.

  4. The tendency to curdle is very much lessened by adding the lemon juice to the yolk before any oil is added.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

260Calories
7 gProtein
24 gFat
5 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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 Evora Bucknum Perkins. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 yolk
Emulsifies the oil and lemon juice, holding them together as a smooth, thick dressing.
Oil
Forms the body of the dressing when dispersed into droplets within the yolk.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that thins the emulsion slightly and helps prevent curdling.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must be added drop by drop at first, while stirring constantly, so it disperses into fine droplets the yolk can hold. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, causing the dressing to curdle and separate.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg. 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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