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 ↓
Mayonnaise Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mayonnaise
In a bowl, mix the powdered sugar, salt, dry mustard, and egg yolks.
Slowly add the olive oil drop by drop while stirring constantly.
Thin the mixture with lemon juice or vinegar.
Serve
Serve over your favorite salad.
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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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).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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 into the mixture, creating a thick, stable sauce structure.
- Olive oil
- Provides the fat that forms the body and richness of the sauce.
- Lemon juice or vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens flavor and thins the thick emulsion.
- Dry mustard
- Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds a sharp, savory flavor.
The step that matters
Adding the olive oil slowly while stirring. Oil must be dispersed into tiny droplets so the egg yolk lecithin can coat them. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolks, and the emulsion breaks into a greasy, separated liquid.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, olive, lemon):
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, olive, lemon. 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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