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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, mustard, sugar, salt, celery essence, oil or butter, vinegar, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, mustard, sugar, salt, and essence of celery.

  2. Gradually stir in salad oil or melted butter until well mixed.

  3. Add vinegar and cayenne pepper, stirring until thick like jelly.

  4. When ready to use, thin with additional vinegar to achieve a creamy consistency.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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 form the thick body of the dressing.
Salad oil or melted butter
Supplies fat that, emulsified with the yolks, builds richness and body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for sharp flavor and helps the dressing thicken and then thin.
Mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds sharpness.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the oil or butter. Adding fat slowly lets the yolks coat each droplet and form a stable emulsion. Pouring too fast can cause the dressing to split and fail to thicken.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, sugar, butter, vinegar, 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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