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Mayonnaise Dressing

A cold egg yolk-based dressing made with mustard, salt, oil, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,816 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg yolks well on a large flat plate with a silver fork.

  2. Mix the dry mustard and salt together, then add to the egg yolks.

  3. Gradually add the oil, starting with a few drops at a time, mixing well.

  4. Add the lemon juice while continuing to mix.

  5. If the mixture separates, add a few drops of lemon juice and stir well before adding more oil.

  6. Ensure all ingredients are cold before use.

  7. Mix thoroughly for 30 to 60 minutes until well 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. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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
Emulsifying agents that bind the oil and lemon juice into a stable, thick sauce.
Salad oil
Supplies the fat that, dispersed into droplets, gives the dressing its body and richness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Dry mustard
Contains natural emulsifiers that help hold the oil and yolk mixture together.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually. Oil added too fast cannot be absorbed by the yolks, so the emulsion breaks and the mixture separates. Adding it a few drops at a time while mixing lets each droplet get coated by yolk proteins, keeping it suspended.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon. 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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