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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, mustard, paprika, sugar, lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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

Make the emulsion

  1. Mix the egg yolks, mustard, paprika, sugar, and lemon juice until well combined.

  2. Slowly add the chilled olive oil, drop by drop at first, while stirring constantly.

  3. As the mixture thickens, alternate adding the lemon juice and vinegar while continuing to stir.

  4. Once half the oil is incorporated, add the remaining oil in larger amounts.

Finish

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites until fully combined.

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. Pepper + lemontop 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. Lemon + olivetop 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
Lecithin in the yolks emulsifies the oil and water, holding the dressing together and thickening it.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase of the emulsion, giving the dressing its rich, creamy body.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help stabilise the oil and yolk mixture so it does not split.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps thin the mixture as it thickens.
Egg whites
Beaten whites add air and lightness, giving the dressing a softer, looser texture.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly at the start. Oil added too fast before the yolks have emulsified will not bind and the dressing can split or stay runny. Adding it drop by drop while stirring lets the yolk lecithin surround the oil droplets and build a stable, thick emulsion.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, sugar, lemon, 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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