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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made with mustard, salt, paprika, egg yolks, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the emulsion

  1. Mix the mustard, salt, and paprika in a bowl.

  2. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Slowly add the olive oil drop by drop until it begins to thicken.

  4. Once thickened, add lemon juice or vinegar to thin it out.

  5. Alternate adding the oil, vinegar, and lemon juice until fully combined.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, fold in the whipped cream.

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. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Lecithin in the yolks lets oil and water-based liquids bind into a stable, thick emulsion.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that, dispersed in droplets, builds the thick body of the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity and thins the emulsion while keeping it balanced.
Whipped cream
Adds air and softness, lightening the texture of the finished dressing.
Mustard
Its compounds help stabilize the emulsion so the oil stays suspended.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil. Oil must be added slowly, drop by drop at first, so the droplets can be surrounded by egg yolk. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, and the dressing separates into a greasy liquid.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

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