Name: Our Own Saucb for Salad or Cold Meat
Ingredients: 2 very fresh egg yolks; ½ saltspoonful of coarse sea salt; ⅓ saltspoonful of cayenne pepper; a slight grating of nutmeg; 3 tablespoons of high-quality oil; 3 tablespoons of good meat jelly; 2 tablespoons of cucumber vinegar

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Our Own Saucb for Salad or Cold Meat

Ingredients

2 very fresh egg yolks
½ saltspoonful of coarse sea salt
⅓ saltspoonful of cayenne pepper
a slight grating of nutmeg
3 tablespoons of high-quality oil
3 tablespoons of good meat jelly
2 tablespoons of cucumber vinegar

Directions

In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg.
Gradually stir in the oil, mixing until smooth like mayonnaise.
Add the meat jelly and cucumber vinegar, mixing until well combined.

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.

Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Nutmeg + cucumbertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together432 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pepper + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,991 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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 yolks: Emulsify the oil into a smooth, thick sauce, acting as the structure of the dressing.
Oil: Provides the fat that, emulsified with the yolks, gives the sauce its rich, creamy body.
Meat jelly: Adds savory body and richness to the sauce once the emulsion is formed.
Cucumber vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the oil. Adding oil slowly lets the lecithin in the egg yolks break it into tiny droplets and form a stable emulsion. Adding it too fast can cause the sauce to split and turn greasy.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, meat, cucumber, vinegar):

Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Parsleyfits better
Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, meat, cucumber, vinegar. 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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Our Own Saucb for Salad or Cold Meat