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Remoulade Dressing

A mayonnaise-based sauce with eggs, mustard, vinegar, olive oil, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Remoulade Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the yolks

  1. Remove the shells from the hard boiled eggs and set the whites aside for garnish.

  2. Mash the yolks until smooth, then add the mustard, salt, cayenne, and half of the vinegar. Mix thoroughly.

Make the sauce

  1. Slowly add the olive oil, drop by drop, while beating the mixture continuously.

  2. Once well combined, add the raw egg yolk and mix until fully incorporated.

  3. Finally, add the remaining vinegar and adjust the oil and vinegar to taste.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Olive + mustardtop 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. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Olive + peppertop 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

Raw egg yolk
Its lecithin helps emulsify the oil and vinegar into a stable, creamy sauce.
Hard boiled eggs
Mashed yolks add body and richness, thickening the sauce.
Olive oil
Provides fat that, emulsified, gives the sauce its smooth, rich texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.
Prepared mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and egg mixture together.

The step that matters

Adding the oil drop by drop while beating. Oil must be dispersed slowly into the egg mixture so the emulsion forms; adding it too fast causes it to split and turn greasy and separated.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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