Poor mayonnaise. It didn’t make the cut as a mother sauce. It should have. It’s a proper emulsion with many culinary applications. Over the intervening decades, mayonnaise spread itself thinner and thinner before going full-blown commercial—where it has pretty much stayed. We love Hellman’s and Best Foods as much as anyone, but in some preparations, a good homemade mayonnaise makes all the difference in flavor and performance. It is a recipe every cook needs. This is ours—and it was inspired by Melissa Clark’s version in the New York Times.