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Mayonnaise Sance

A homemade mayonnaise sauce made with egg yolks, olive oil, lemon juice, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Sance

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Work the yolks of the raw eggs into a smooth paste.

  2. Add salt, cayenne, mustard, and olive oil; mix thoroughly.

  3. Gradually add the strained juice of half a lemon and then the olive oil, one teaspoon at a time.

  4. Every fifth teaspoon, add a few drops of lemon juice until you have used two lemons and the half cup of oil.

  5. If too thick, gradually add the cream.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 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

Egg yolks
Lecithin in the yolks emulsifies the oil and lemon juice, giving the sauce its thick, smooth body.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase of the emulsion, providing richness and a thick, glossy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps keep the emulsion stable.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly. Oil must be added in small amounts while whisking so droplets disperse fully. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, and the sauce separates into a greasy, runny mixture.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, mustard, olive, tarragon, vinegar, cream. 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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