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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy sauce made by emulsifying egg yolk, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, and olive oil.

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 yolk in a bowl.

  2. Add salt, mustard, sugar, and paprika; mix thoroughly.

  3. Stir in lemon juice and vinegar.

Add the oil

  1. Beat vigorously while adding olive oil, one teaspoon at a time, until 6 teaspoons have been added.

  2. Continue adding oil by the tablespoon until a total of 1 cup is used, beating constantly.

  3. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

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. Lemon + olivetop 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. Vinegar + olivetop 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 yolk
Lecithin in the yolk emulsifies the oil and water, holding the sauce together.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase that gives mayonnaise its thick, rich body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Mustard
Acts as an additional emulsifier that helps the oil stay suspended in the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while beating. Oil must be dispersed into tiny droplets before the yolk can coat them. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk, so the mixture breaks and separates into oil and liquid.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

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