Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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 ↓
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine the yolk of the hard boiled egg and the raw egg yolk.
Slowly mix in the oil, drop by drop, until the mixture is smooth.
Add pepper, salt, and the juice of the lemons, and mix well.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify the oil and lemon juice, giving the dressing a smooth, thick body.
- Oil
- Provides fat that, dispersed drop by drop, creates a creamy texture and mellows the acidity.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity for sharp flavor and helps keep the emulsion balanced.
The step that matters
Slowly mix in the oil, drop by drop. Oil must be dispersed into tiny droplets among the egg yolk's lecithin to form a stable emulsion. Adding it too fast lets the droplets merge, so the dressing splits and turns oily instead of smooth.
“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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