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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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

Prepare

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

Make the dressing

  1. Add the egg yolks and a few drops of olive oil, beating with an egg beater or wooden spoon.

  2. When it begins to thicken, add a little vinegar.

  3. Continue to add the remaining oil and vinegar alternately until fully combined.

  4. The dressing should be thick.

Fix a curdled dressing

  1. If it curdles, take another egg yolk and gradually add the curdled dressing to it, beating until smooth.

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 + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 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. Olive + peppertop 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

Eggs
Egg yolks emulsify the oil and vinegar, giving the dressing its thick, smooth body.
Olive oil
Forms the bulk of the dressing, providing richness and fat that thickens when emulsified.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the rich oil and brightens the flavor.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and liquid together in a stable emulsion.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and vinegar gradually. Oil must be added slowly while beating so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk, so the emulsion breaks and the dressing curdles.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, 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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