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Sauce

Mayonnaise Sauce

A creamy sauce made from mustard, egg yolk, oil, and vinegar, seasoned with salt and optional lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Mayonnaise Sauce

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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mayonnaise

  1. In a two-quart bowl, combine the mustard, salt, and vinegar.

  2. Beat in the egg yolk.

  3. Gradually add the olive oil while beating briskly.

  4. Continue beating until the mixture becomes a thick batter.

Finish and store

  1. Adjust flavor with additional vinegar or lemon juice as desired.

  2. Store covered in a cool place for up to weeks.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Mustard + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,340 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 yolk
Its lecithin emulsifies the oil and vinegar, holding the sauce together as a thick, stable mixture.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase of the emulsion, giving mayonnaise its rich body and smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Ground mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help stabilize the emulsion and add a sharp, savory note.

The step that matters

Gradually add the olive oil while beating briskly. Oil must be dispersed into tiny droplets in the egg yolk. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk's emulsifiers, so the mixture fails to thicken and separates.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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