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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, mustard, sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, vinegar, oil, and 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. Beat the egg yolks, mustard, sugar, cayenne pepper, and salt until light.

  2. Slowly add a few drops of oil at a time until the mixture thickens.

  3. Add the oil more rapidly.

  4. Add the vinegar.

  5. Mix until very thick.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours.

  2. Fold in the 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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Their lecithin emulsifies the oil and water into a stable, thick sauce.
Oil
Forms the body of the sauce as tiny droplets suspended in the yolk mixture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and yolk mixture together.
Cream
Folded in at the end to lighten the texture and add richness.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must go in slowly at first, a few drops at a time, so the yolks can absorb it into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving a thin, separated sauce that will not thicken.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, pepper, 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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