Why it works: Egg and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Mayonnaise
Ingredients
Directions
In a cool room, place the eggs in a bowl.
Whisk the eggs until well combined.
Slowly add the oil while continuously whisking until the mixture thickens.
Season with salt and add lemon juice or vinegar to taste.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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
- Eggs
- Egg yolk proteins emulsify the oil and hold the droplets apart, giving the sauce its thick structure.
- Oil
- Forms the bulk of the emulsion, providing richness and the bulk of the sauce's body.
- Lemon juice or vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
The step that matters
Adding the oil slowly while whisking. Oil added too quickly cannot be dispersed into the egg, so the emulsion breaks and the mixture stays runny or separates. Adding it in a slow, steady stream while whisking constantly lets the egg proteins coat each droplet and thicken the sauce.
“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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