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Mayonnaise Dressing

A creamy dressing made from egg yolks, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and olive 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

Make the emulsion

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks and salt, and beat thoroughly.

  2. Slowly add the olive oil, a few drops at a time, while beating constantly until all the oil is incorporated.

  3. Add the vinegar and lemon juice in the same manner.

Finish

  1. Finally, fold in the whipped cream.

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. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 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
Emulsifier that holds the oil and liquids together as a smooth, thick mixture.
Olive oil
Fat that gives the dressing its richness and body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and fresh citrus flavour that lifts the dressing.
Whipped cream
Adds air and a light, fluffy texture to the dressing.

The step that matters

Add the oil slowly while beating constantly. The yolk lecithin must coat tiny oil droplets as they form. Adding oil too fast overwhelms the yolk, so the emulsion breaks and the mixture separates into a greasy liquid.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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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