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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, onion juice, and optional powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill the bowl and spoon.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the dry ingredients and add to the egg yolks, beating well.

  2. Gradually add the oil while stirring vigorously to blend the mixture.

  3. Once the oil is fully incorporated, add the vinegar, lemon juice, and onion juice.

  4. If desired, add the powdered sugar.

Finish

  1. Just before serving, fold in the whipped 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and water into a stable, thick mixture that holds together.
Oil
Forms the bulk of the dressing, giving it richness and a smooth, creamy body.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a softer, airier texture when folded in at the end.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens flavour and helps keep the dressing tangy.

The step that matters

Gradually add the oil while stirring vigorously. Oil must be added slowly while stirring so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk's lecithin. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving the dressing thin and separated.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, lemon, vinegar, cream, sugar. 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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