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Mayonnaise Dressing

A simple homemade mayonnaise dressing made with egg, mustard, olive oil, salt, and vinegar.

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

Make the mayonnaise

  1. Beat the raw egg with salt until smooth.

  2. Add the mixed mustard and mix until smooth.

  3. Slowly add the olive oil, a little at a time, mixing to a thick paste.

Finish and store

  1. Dilute with vinegar until the consistency is like thick cream.

  2. Store in a bottle with a glass stopper.

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

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

  5. Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,340 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

Raw egg
Its proteins emulsify the oil into the base, forming a stable thick sauce.
Olive oil
Supplies the fat that, dispersed in droplets, gives the dressing its body and richness.
Mixed mustard
Its compounds help hold the oil and egg emulsion together and add sharpness.
Vinegar
Thins the thick emulsion to a creamy consistency and adds acidity.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil. Oil must be added slowly, a little at a time, so the egg yolk proteins can surround the droplets. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving the dressing oily and thin instead of thick.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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