Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Plain Mayonnaise
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine lemon or lime juice, dry mustard, egg yolks, sugar, cayenne pepper, and salt, then beat the mixture well.
Slowly add the cream while continuing to beat.
Cook in a double boiler until thickened.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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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Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,816 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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 mixture and thicken it as they cook, giving the sauce its body.
- Rich, sweet cream
- Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the finished sauce.
- Lemon or lime juice
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the cream.
- Dry mustard
- Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury note.
The step that matters
Cook in a double boiler until thickened. Egg yolks thicken on gentle heat, but if they get too hot they scramble and curdle. A double boiler keeps the heat low and even, so the sauce thickens smoothly.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, egg, sugar, pepper, cream):
- Spinachfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, egg, sugar, pepper, 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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