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Mayonnaise Making Simplified

A simple homemade mayonnaise made by whisking egg yolk, seasonings, and 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 Making Simplified

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill the egg, oil, and bowl.

  2. Combine the egg yolk, salt, sugar, cayenne or Tabasco, and mustard (if using) in the bowl. Mix until smooth.

Make the emulsion

  1. Add a small spoonful of oil and beat vigorously until well mixed.

  2. Continue adding oil spoonful by spoonful, beating hard each time.

  3. Once thickened, thin with 2 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice.

  4. Thicken again with oil as needed.

Adjust and rescue

  1. For larger amounts, use 2 yolks for a quart of oil.

  2. If the mixture fails, start with a fresh yolk and use the failed batch to thicken the new one.

  3. For added flavor, consider using tarragon vinegar, mint vinegar, or rubbing the bowl with garlic.

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. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Its lecithin emulsifies the oil and water, creating a thick, stable sauce.
Oil
Forms the bulk of the sauce, providing richness and body as it is dispersed into droplets.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help stabilize the emulsion and add a sharp flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the oil. Oil must be added slowly, a little at a time, while beating hard. Oil added too fast overwhelms the yolk, so the droplets cannot be coated and the emulsion breaks into a runny, separated mixture.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, sauce, 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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