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Mayonnaise Dressing

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, mustard, salt, and pepper.

  2. If using lemon juice, add it now.

  3. Gradually add the vinegar while stirring constantly.

  4. Slowly incorporate the olive oil, a few drops at a time, until fully absorbed.

  5. Beat the mixture well with a wooden spoon.

  6. For added flavor, mix in chopped capers, pickles, or pitted olives if desired.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and vinegar, giving the dressing its thick, creamy structure.
Mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion so the oil and vinegar stay combined.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that gives the dressing its richness and body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil slowly. Oil added too quickly cannot be absorbed by the egg yolk emulsion and can separate, leaving a broken, oily dressing. Adding it a few drops at a time, while beating, lets each drop disperse fully before the next goes in.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, vinegar, olive, pepper):

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

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