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Salad

Mayonnaise for Salad

A homemade mayonnaise dressing made with egg yolk, vinegar, oil, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and vinegar 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 for Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the emulsion

  1. Combine the egg yolk, salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper, and vinegar in a bowl until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the salad oil, starting with 2-3 drops at a time, mixing until a thick paste forms.

  3. Add a little vinegar to achieve a consistency similar to rich cream.

  4. Continue alternating between adding oil and vinegar, stirring constantly, until all the oil and vinegar are used.

Rescue and store

  1. If the mayonnaise curdles, chill it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, then finish mixing.

  2. Keep the mayonnaise in a cold place until ready to serve.

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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  2. White pepper + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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
Lecithin in the yolk emulsifies the oil and vinegar into a stable, thick sauce.
Salad oil
Forms the bulk of the sauce, giving it richness and a thick, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the rich oil and helps thin the emulsion to a creamy consistency.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly at the start. The yolk can only hold a small amount of oil at first. Adding oil in drops while mixing lets the droplets be coated and dispersed; adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, so it curdles and separates.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, 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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