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Mayonnaise Dressing

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

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

  1. In a bowl, beat the raw egg with a wooden spoon until smooth.

  2. Add the salt and mustard, mixing until well combined.

  3. Gradually add the olive oil, a few drops at a time, blending well after each addition.

  4. Continue until the mixture is smooth and thick enough for a spoon to stand in it.

Finish the dressing

  1. Dilute with vinegar or lemon juice until it reaches the consistency of thick cream.

  2. If desired, add a little anchovy for flavor.

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. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Olive + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together880 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg
Its yolk lecithin emulsifies the oil and water, holding the dressing together and making it thick.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that, dispersed in droplets, gives the dressing its body and richness.
Mixed mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, tangy flavour.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity for brightness and thins the dressing to a creamy consistency.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil. If oil is poured in too quickly, the droplets cannot be surrounded by the egg yolk and the emulsion breaks, leaving a greasy, runny mixture. Adding it slowly, a few drops at a time, lets the emulsion form and thicken.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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