Why it works: Vinegar and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓
How to Make Mayonnaise By Leon Kritz
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mayonnaise
Break the egg yolks into a bowl.
Add salt and pepper, and whip for a few seconds.
Slowly incorporate the olive oil while stirring constantly.
Add the vinegar gradually during the mixing.
Store
Set the sauce in a cool place and use when needed.
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.
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Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,297 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,263 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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
- Emulsifiers that hold the oil and vinegar together as a thick, stable sauce.
- Olive oil
- Supplies the fat that gives mayonnaise its rich body and smooth texture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that balances the richness and helps stabilise the emulsion.
The step that matters
Slowly incorporate the olive oil while stirring constantly. Egg yolks can only hold a limited amount of oil in suspension. Adding oil too fast overwhelms them, so the emulsion breaks and the sauce turns runny and greasy instead of thick.
“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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