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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chill the oil and egg thoroughly before starting.
Ensure the yolk is free from any egg white.
Make the mayonnaise
Add the oil drop by drop to the yolk, mixing continuously.
Once it thickens, you can add the oil in larger quantities.
Alternate adding a few drops of lemon juice as it thickens.
If desired, add ¼ teaspoon of mustard.
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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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 yolk
- Emulsifies the oil and water in lemon juice, giving mayonnaise its thick, creamy structure.
- Salad oil
- Forms the bulk of the emulsion, providing richness and body as it is dispersed into droplets.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion as it thickens.
The step that matters
Adding the oil drop by drop at the start. Oil added too quickly at first cannot be absorbed by the yolk, so the emulsion breaks and the mixture stays runny or separates. Slow addition lets tiny droplets form and become coated before more oil is added.
“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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