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Friday, September 04, 2015

The Art of Mayonnaise



If you aren’t making your own mayonnaise and alioli at home then you are letting one of the best things in life (or at least in the kitchen) pass you by. Store-bought mayonnaise is for chumps as making it at home takes literally less than a minute. I don’t recommend making it with a whisk like the French guy does in the video but I like how he broke down the “whys” and “whats” of making this simple sauce. First of all it is essential to begin with all the ingredients at room temperature as he advises. Take your eggs out of the refrigerator well before the start or your oil won’t emulsify as I learned the hard way on more than one occasion. I watched a video in Arabic and the woman said that if everything goes as it should, and if God wills it (in sha Allah) you will have mayonnaise.

I don’t think that divine intervention is necessary to pull off great mayonnaise every time in your kitchen. I haven’t made a video because there are already hundreds out there in every language to walk you through this. I have a few tricks that I use in my version. I use a LOT of garlic, like 3-4 cloves. I mash them first in a mortar with a pinch of salt and oil just so I know that no little chunks escape the fury of the hand blender. I also use extra virgin olive oil even though many people say that it is too strong for this delicate sauce. I just figure that olive oil is much better for me than any other type of oil so that’s what I should be using. I also like to squirt in a bit of red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice, mostly because I always have vinegar on hand which isn’t true about lemons. I have a special glass container that I use to make it so that I don’t have to transfer the finished product. I just pull out the blender and put on the cap.  I also like to stir in a little more seedy Dijon mustard when I'm finished just for an added kick.

My last batch of mayonnaise was so good that I could eat it like ice cream.