Skip to main content
Main

Mayonnaise Sauce

A cold sauce made from an egg yolk, salt, mustard powder, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and optional whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Mayonnaise Sauce

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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mayonnaise

  1. Place the uncooked egg yolk in a cold bowl and beat it well with a fork.

  2. Add the salt and mustard powder, mixing well for a minute.

  3. Slowly pour in the oil, a few drops at a time, alternating with vinegar.

  4. Continue until the sauce thickens to a jelly-like consistency.

  5. Once thickened, alternate adding lemon juice with the remaining oil.

  6. When the egg has absorbed 1 cup of oil, add cayenne pepper and vinegar to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. If desired, fold in whipped cream before serving.

  2. Do not mix the dressing with meat or fish until ready to serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 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 yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, giving the sauce its body and thickness.
Oil
Forms the bulk of the sauce, supplying richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and sharpens the flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright flavour that balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard powder
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury note.

The step that matters

Add the oil slowly at the start. Oil must be added a few drops at a time so the egg yolk can emulsify it. Pouring too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a runny, separated sauce.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Cherryfits less well

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

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes