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 ↓
Mayonnaise Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Place the egg yolks in a bowl and season with pepper and salt.
Set the bowl in a pan of ice or very cold water.
Make the mayonnaise
Gradually add a few drops of oil while stirring continuously.
Add a few drops of vinegar, using a ratio of 6 tablespoons of oil to 4 tablespoons of vinegar.
Continue stirring until the desired quantity of sauce is achieved.
Add a squeeze of lemon juice to lighten the color.
Finish
Before serving, melt the aspic jelly (do not warm) and stir it into the mayonnaise until incorporated.
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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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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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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Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,334 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together21,449 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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 vinegar, giving the sauce its thick, creamy structure.
- Salad oil
- Provides the fat that, dispersed into the yolks, forms the body of the sauce.
- French vinegar
- Adds acidity that balances the richness and helps stabilise the emulsion.
- Clear aspic jelly
- Adds gelling body and sheen to the finished sauce when stirred in.
The step that matters
Adding the oil gradually. Oil must be added a few drops at a time while stirring constantly. If added too fast, the emulsion cannot form and the sauce separates into a greasy, runny mixture. Keeping the bowl cold helps the emulsion hold.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, pepper, cream):
- Lemonthe original
- Strawberryfits about as well
- Limefits less well
- Cherryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, 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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