Why it works: Olive and lemon 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 ↓
Salad Deessing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
In a bowl, beat the yolks of two raw eggs with one teaspoon of prepared mustard mixed with water.
Slowly add olive oil drop by drop while stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.
Add two teaspoons of powdered sugar and a scant ¼ teaspoon of salt; mix thoroughly.
Squeeze in the juice of one lemon and beat well.
If the dressing is too thick, thin it with a little sweet cream.
Variation
For a variation, omit the lemon and cream and use vinegar instead.
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.
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Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,950 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,816 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Emulsify the oil and water, giving the dressing its thick, creamy body.
- Olive oil
- Supplies the fat that forms the body of the dressing when whisked into the yolks.
- Made mustard
- Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds sharp flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds a little sweetness that rounds out the acidity.
The step that matters
Adding the olive oil. Oil must be added drop by drop while stirring constantly, so the yolks can absorb it into a stable emulsion. Adding it too fast makes the dressing separate and fail to thicken.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, olive, sugar, lemon, cream):
- Spinachfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, sugar, lemon, 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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