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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, sugar, mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, olive oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the yolks of 2 eggs until very light.

  2. Add sugar, mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Ensure all utensils are cold.

Emulsify

  1. Slowly add the olive oil while beating constantly.

  2. When half the oil is added, mix in the vinegar.

  3. Continue adding the remaining oil.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

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 yolks emulsifies the oil and water, forming a thick, stable sauce.
Olive oil
Supplies the fat that, dispersed into droplets, gives the dressing its body and richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and water phases together.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while beating constantly. Oil must be dispersed into tiny droplets before more is added. Pouring too fast overwhelms the yolks, so the emulsion breaks and the sauce turns oily and runny.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, pepper, olive, 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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