Russian salad is one of those dishes everyone thinks they know inside out. Potato, peas, carrot, mayonnaise - what is there to learn? Plenty. The problem is almost never the salad, but the mayonnaise that splits, thins out or, most often, comes ready-made out of a jar.

Spanish chef Dani García, who holds a Michelin star, reduces the whole question to three words: mayonnaise has to be stable, with body, and with a point of acidity. If one of those three is missing, the salad falls apart - no matter how well you boiled the potatoes.

The rule about eggs

First thing, and the most commonly skipped: the eggs must be at room temperature. Never straight from the fridge. A cold egg and room-temperature oil do not bind properly - that is why mayonnaise splits for most people, not the quality of the oil.

The ratio is around 20 percent egg to 80 percent oil. Sunflower, olive or a blend - the proportion stays the same. That is the number that determines the thickness, not the amount you throw in by eye.

The ingredient almost nobody adds

Sherry vinegar is the part García calls the trick that will solve your life. It is not there only for flavour - it stops the mayonnaise splitting while adding aroma and acidity at the same time. So it is not a seasoning, it is insurance.

The method is short: eggs, enough salt and sherry vinegar in the container, then the stick blender pushed right to the bottom. Move your hand slowly up and down, do not swirl it as if stirring dough. About a minute is enough.

Here Russian salad is eaten mostly in winter, usually when there are ten other things on the table. That is also why the failed versions pass unnoticed - nobody lingers on it. And yet the difference between mayonnaise from a jar and mayonnaise made in one minute from two eggs registers immediately.