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 No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the yolk of the hard-boiled egg through a fine sieve until smooth.
Add the mustard, salt, pepper, and the well-beaten raw yolk.
Slowly add the olive oil, then the vinegar.
Finally, fold in the beaten raw egg white.
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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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,950 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,297 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Hard-boiled egg yolk
- Its fat and emulsifying lecithin help bind the oil and water into a smooth base.
- Raw egg yolk
- Lecithin in the yolk emulsifies the olive oil, so the sauce thickens instead of separating.
- Olive oil
- Forms the bulk of the sauce, giving it richness and body as it is dispersed into droplets.
- Mustard
- Its compounds help stabilise the emulsion, making the sauce less likely to break.
- Raw egg white
- Adds airy volume, lightening the texture of the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Slowly add the olive oil. Oil must be added in a thin, slow stream so each droplet is coated by yolk before the next one joins. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk's emulsifier, and the mayonnaise breaks into a greasy, separated liquid.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, olive, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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