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Mayonnaise Dressing

A cold dressing made from egg yolks, oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, white pepper, and optional mustard.

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 ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill the oil in the refrigerator.

  2. In a deep dish, combine the cold egg yolks, salt, sugar, and white pepper; beat thoroughly.

Make the mayonnaise

  1. Gradually add a few drops of oil while continuously beating in the same direction.

  2. Once the mixture thickens slightly, add a few drops of vinegar.

  3. Continue alternating between adding oil and vinegar until all is incorporated.

  4. Use 1½ tablespoons of vinegar for 1 pint of oil.

  5. Optionally, add ½ teaspoon of mustard for flavor.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsifier that holds the oil and vinegar together, giving the dressing its thick, creamy body.
Oil
Supplies the fat that forms the bulk of the emulsion, giving the dressing its rich texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and helps stabilise the emulsion.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly at the start. Oil must be added a few drops at a time while beating constantly, so tiny droplets disperse and the yolk lecithin can coat them. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a thin, separated dressing.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, white pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, white pepper, 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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