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Salad

Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill the oil and egg yolks in the refrigerator before use.

  2. In a cup, combine the egg yolks and beat until creamy using a Dover egg-beater.

Make the emulsion

  1. Gradually add a few drops of oil while beating until thickened.

  2. Once thick, add the oil more rapidly.

  3. When the mixture becomes very thick, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar.

  4. Continue adding oil and lemon juice until all is used.

Finish

  1. Season the dressing according to the salad it will accompany.

  2. For a richer flavor, fold in 1 cup of whipped cream after seasoning.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

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

  3. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 yolk emulsifies the oil and water, holding the dressing together and thick.
Olive oil
Supplies the fat that, dispersed in droplets, gives the dressing its body and richness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Whipped cream
Adds air and dairy fat for a lighter, richer texture.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually at the start. Oil must be added a few drops at a time while beating, so droplets can be coated by egg yolk before more oil is added. Adding too much early breaks the emulsion, leaving the dressing runny and separated.

“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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