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 Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Place the yolk of the egg in a bowl.
Add the mustard, pepper, salt, and cayenne.
Slowly add the salad oil drop by drop while stirring quickly.
Then add the vinegar and lemon juice.
The sauce should be kept quite stiff.
If the sauce curdles, add another yolk of egg to restore it.
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.
-
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,816 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolk
- Emulsifies the oil and water-based liquids, holding the sauce together as a thick suspension.
- Salad oil
- Forms the bulk of the sauce, providing richness and a smooth, creamy body.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.
- Mustard
- Contains natural emulsifiers that help the oil and yolk bind together smoothly.
The step that matters
Add the oil drop by drop. Oil must be dispersed into tiny droplets in the yolk before more is added. Adding it too fast overwhelms the yolk, so the emulsion breaks and the sauce curdles.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, egg, lemon, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, lemon, pepper. 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.
More mayonnaise recipes
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.