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Lemon Mayonnaise

A citrus-flavored mayonnaise made with egg yolks, lemon juice, tarragon vinegar, and nut oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lemon Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mayonnaise

  1. In a basin, combine the egg yolks and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon.

  2. Add the nut oil drop by drop until the mixture becomes creamy.

  3. Gradually mix in the tarragon vinegar. Mix in the cream.

  4. Incorporate the strained lemon juice. Stir for another 15 minutes.

  5. Add the castor sugar, pepper, paprika, and a little grated lemon rind. Stir in the boiling water.

Serve

  1. Serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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 form the creamy structure of the mayonnaise.
Nut oil
Provides fat that, emulsified with the yolks, gives the mayonnaise its body and richness.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity and citrus aroma to balance the richness of the oil.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, mellowing the texture of the emulsion.

The step that matters

Adding the nut oil drop by drop. Oil added too quickly can overwhelm the yolks and the emulsion will break, leaving a greasy, separated sauce instead of a creamy one.

“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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