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Sauce

Mayonnaise Sauce

A thick, creamy sauce made from mustard, salt, vinegar, egg yolk, and olive oil.

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

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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a two-quart bowl, mix the mustard, salt, and vinegar.

  2. Beat in the yolk of the raw egg.

Emulsify and store

  1. Gradually add the olive oil while beating briskly.

  2. Continue until the mixture becomes a thick batter.

  3. Store covered in a cold place for up to weeks.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Mustard + eggtop 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

Egg yolk
Lecithin in the yolk emulsifies the oil and water, giving the sauce its thick body.
Olive oil
Forms the fat phase that gives the mayonnaise its richness and creamy texture.
Ground mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion so the oil stays dispersed in the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and sharpens the flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually while beating briskly. The oil must be broken into tiny droplets that the yolk can surround. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk, so the emulsion breaks and the mixture separates instead of thickening.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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