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Mayonnaise Dressing

A cold, emulsified dressing made from egg yolks, oil, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Prepare

  1. Pack a bowl with cracked ice to make the dressing.

  2. In a smaller bowl, sift together salt and cayenne.

  3. Add egg yolks.

  4. Stir until well mixed.

  5. Stir in 1½ teaspoons lemon juice.

  6. Keep all ingredients chilled.

Make the mayonnaise

  1. Add ¼ cup of olive oil drop by drop.

  2. Use a small wooden spoon for the first ¼ cup of oil.

  3. Stir constantly.

  4. As the mixture thickens, alternate adding a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice with the oil.

  5. Add the remaining oil in larger quantities.

  6. Beat constantly.

  7. Finish with a Dover egg beater.

Rescue and store

  1. If the dressing curdles, beat in another yolk in a chilled bowl.

  2. Slowly incorporate the curdled mixture.

  3. Store mayonnaise in a cold place and add to dishes 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsifiers that hold the oil and lemon juice together as a smooth, thick sauce.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that, dispersed in droplets, gives mayonnaise its thick body and rich texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity for bright flavor and helps stabilize the emulsion as it thickens.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps the emulsion set as it thickens.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must be added drop by drop at first and beaten constantly so the yolks can break it into fine droplets. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolks, and the emulsion breaks and curdles.

“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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