Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Mayonnaise Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Combine hard-boiled egg yolks, salt, mustard powder, minced shallot, and white pepper in a bowl.
Mash the ingredients together with the back of a spoon.
Gradually add oil while mixing until a moist paste forms.
Finish the mayonnaise
Add raw egg yolks and continue adding oil until desired consistency.
Add tarragon vinegar and mix until creamy.
Strain the sauce to remove lumps before serving.
Chill in refrigerator if made in advance.
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.
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Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together602 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together859 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together901 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,547 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raw egg yolks
- Their lecithin emulsifies the oil into the sauce, holding it together as a thick, creamy emulsion.
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Their cooked, crumbly fat and proteins form a moist paste that gives the first body to the sauce.
- Oil
- Supplies the fat that, dispersed in tiny droplets, makes up most of the sauce's rich body.
- Mustard powder
- Its compounds help stabilise the emulsion so the oil stays suspended instead of separating.
- Tarragon vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance the richness of the oil.
The step that matters
Adding the oil gradually. Oil must be added slowly while mixing so it breaks into tiny droplets that the egg yolk can coat. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk, and the emulsion breaks into a greasy, separated sauce.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, shallot, tarragon, vinegar):
- Capersfits better
- Dillfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, shallot, tarragon, 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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