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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, mustard, oil, vinegar, lemon, and seasonings.

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

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks, mustard, sugar, salt, and cayenne in a bowl until very light and thick.

  2. Add the oil drop by drop until the mixture thickens and cannot be stirred.

  3. Add the oil a little faster until it becomes stiff again.

  4. Alternately add the vinegar and remaining oil.

  5. Add the lemon juice and whipped cream if desired.

Chill or serve

  1. Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours or serve immediately.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 as a thick, smooth dressing.
Salad oil
Supplies the fat that gives the dressing its rich body and texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity for sharp flavor and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Dry mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds a sharp, pungent flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly at the start. Oil must be added drop by drop while beating, so the yolks can coat each droplet. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a thin, separated mixture that will not thicken.

“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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