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Salad

Mayonnaise Salad Dressing

A creamy salad dressing made with mustard, egg yolk, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine mustard, salt, black pepper, and egg yolk in a bowl.

  2. Stir until stiff.

  3. Gradually add olive oil drop by drop while stirring until well combined.

  4. Add a few drops of vinegar.

  5. Continue adding oil and vinegar alternately until finished.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 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. Pepper + olivetop 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

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, holding them together as a smooth, thick dressing.
Olive oil
Forms the bulk of the dressing and gives it richness and body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and egg yolk.
Mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury note.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually. Oil must be added slowly, drop by drop at first, so the egg yolk can disperse it into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving a thin, separated dressing.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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