Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
LA Mayonnaise
Ingredients
Directions
In a round-bottomed basin, combine the egg yolk and a pinch of salt.
Stir quickly while adding the salad oil drop by drop, working the spoon rapidly to incorporate the oil.
Once thick, add a few drops of tarragon vinegar.
Continue adding more oil until you have enough sauce.
Thin the sauce with a little more vinegar to achieve a thick, slightly acidic consistency.
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.
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Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,547 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + tarragontop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,789 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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 yolk
- Its lecithin emulsifies the oil into droplets, so the sauce thickens instead of separating.
- Salad oil
- Forms the bulk of the sauce, suspended as fine droplets that give it richness and body.
- Tarragon vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.
The step that matters
Adding the oil drop by drop at the start. Oil added too fast at the beginning overwhelms the yolk, which cannot hold so many droplets, and the mixture breaks into a greasy, separated liquid. Slow addition while stirring lets the yolk coat each droplet first, building a stable emulsion.
“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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