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Salad

Mayonnaise Salad Dressing

A simple mayonnaise-based salad dressing made with egg yolks, olive oil, vinegar, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Mayonnaise Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the yolks of two raw eggs until well combined.

  2. Season with cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, and mustard to taste.

  3. Slowly add olive oil in a fine stream while stirring constantly until smooth and thick.

  4. Gradually add vinegar while continuing to stir until well mixed.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsifies the oil and water so the dressing becomes smooth and thick rather than separating.
Olive oil
Forms the fat base of the emulsion, giving the dressing its body and rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Contributes emulsifying help and sharp flavour that stabilises the dressing.

The step that matters

Slowly add olive oil in a fine stream while stirring constantly. Oil must be dispersed into the yolks in tiny droplets. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk's emulsifiers, and the dressing can split into a greasy, separated liquid.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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