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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg yolks until very stiff using an egg beater.

  2. Gradually add the olive oil while continuing to beat until thick.

  3. Mix in the salt and lemon juice just before serving.

  4. Fold in the whipped heavy cream until you reach your desired creaminess.

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. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Olive + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,206 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Act as the emulsifier, holding the oil and water in the sauce together and giving body.
Olive oil
Provides the fat that makes the dressing thick and rich while carrying its flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Heavy cream
Whipped and folded in, it adds lightness and a softer, creamier texture.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil gradually. Egg yolks emulsify oil only when it is added slowly while beating. Pouring it in too fast overwhelms the yolks, so the oil separates and the dressing fails to thicken.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, 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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