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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made with mustard, egg yolks, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and whipped cream.

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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the emulsion

  1. Mix the mustard, salt, paprika, and egg yolks together well.

  2. Add the olive oil drop by drop until it begins to thicken.

Finish and serve

  1. Once thick, alternate adding lemon juice and vinegar with the remaining oil until fully combined.

  2. Just before serving, fold in the whipped cream.

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. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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, so the dressing thickens and holds together.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase that gives the dressing its rich body and smooth texture.
Mustard
Acts as a second emulsifier that helps keep the oil suspended and the sauce stable.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Whipped cream
Adds air and lightness, softening the texture of the finished dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the oil drop by drop at the start. Oil added too fast before the yolks have formed an emulsion can break the mixture, leaving it greasy and separated. Slow addition lets the lecithin in the yolks coat the oil droplets, so the sauce thickens into a stable emulsion.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

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