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Mayonnaise Dressing

A cold egg yolk-based dressing thickened with oil and seasoned with vinegar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill the oil, egg yolk, and bowl on ice until cold.

  2. Beat the yolk until light and foamy.

Make the emulsion

  1. Gradually add the oil, one drop at a time, beating until thick.

  2. Thin the mixture with a little vinegar and continue adding oil until thick.

  3. Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

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

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

  2. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 yolk
Its lecithin emulsifies the oil and water so the sauce stays thick instead of separating.
Oil
Forms the bulk of the sauce, providing richness and body as tiny droplets suspended in the yolk.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps thin the mixture while it thickens.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must go in slowly at first, because the yolk can only hold tiny droplets at the start. Adding too much at once breaks the emulsion, and the sauce separates into a greasy liquid.

“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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