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Mayonnaise Dressing

A dressing made from egg yolks, olive oil, mustard, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,279 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the emulsion

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks.

  2. Slowly add the olive oil while stirring continuously.

  3. Do not add the salt, sugar, or lemon juice until nearly all the oil is incorporated.

Store

  1. Once mixed, store in a cool place for up to two 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.

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 + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Lemon + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Olive + turmerictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,679 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
Act as the emulsifier, holding the oil and water-based parts together as a smooth, thick sauce.
Olive oil
Supplies the fat that gives the dressing its body, richness, and creamy texture.
Mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion so the oil stays dispersed and the sauce does not separate.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while stirring. Oil must be broken into tiny droplets that the egg yolk can coat. Pouring too fast overwhelms the yolk, and the mixture splits into a greasy, separated sauce. Holding back salt, sugar, and lemon juice until most of the oil is incorporated helps the emulsion form and stay thick.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, lemon, sugar, turmeric. 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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