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 ↓
Mayonnaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Place a mixing bowl in a larger bowl filled with cracked ice.
Add the raw and boiled egg yolks to the bowl.
Gradually add a little olive oil and rub to a cream.
Mix in the mustard, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.
Emulsify and finish
Slowly add the remaining oil, drop by drop, while beating until thick and shiny.
Thin the mixture with vinegar, adding it drop by drop until the desired consistency is reached.
Stir in the lemon juice and, just before serving, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Keep the dressing very cold.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,950 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Their lecithin emulsifies the oil and water, holding the dressing together as a thick sauce.
- Olive oil
- Forms the fat phase that gives the mayonnaise its richness and body.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps thin the emulsion to the desired consistency.
- Prepared mustard
- Its compounds help stabilise the emulsion and add a sharp, savoury flavour.
The step that matters
Adding the oil slowly, drop by drop, while beating. Oil added too fast cannot be dispersed into the yolks, so the emulsion breaks and the mayonnaise stays runny or separates. Keeping everything cold also helps the emulsion hold.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, olive, lemon, pepper, vinegar, sugar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardthe original
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, lemon, pepper, vinegar, sugar. 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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