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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made with mustard, egg yolk, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard, salt, and cayenne until well blended.

  2. Add the egg yolk and stir steadily while adding a few drops of olive oil.

  3. When half of the oil is used or the dressing becomes very thick, alternate adding a few drops of vinegar.

  4. Continue this process until all the oil and vinegar are used.

  5. If the dressing is too thick, beat in a small amount of cream just before serving.

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. Mustard + peppertop 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 yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, holding the dressing together and giving it body.
Olive oil
Supplies the fat that, dispersed in the yolk, makes the dressing rich and thick.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds a sharp, savory flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while stirring. Oil must be dispersed in small drops so the egg yolk can coat each one. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk, and the dressing breaks into a separated, greasy liquid that cannot be fully rescued by adding more oil.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg, 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 pepper, egg, 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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