Too lazy to leave my home in the middle of food preparation (and too nice of a guy to send Tina on a mayonnaise buying errand)}?>, I grabbed a clean bowl and my whisk to make some of my homemade mayo.
All you need are two large egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, a pinch of white pepper, and 1 cup oil. I ran out of lemon juice last night (I just keep running out of ingredients), so I used about 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. I also froze the two large egg whites in ice cube trays for later use. For the oil, I used extra light olive oil because of its very faint (almost nonexistant) flavor and nutritional and health properties.
I put the yolks, lemon juice, salt, and pepper into my mixing bowl and whisked until smooth and light. I then whisked the oil, a few drops at a time, into the mixture. I made sure the mixture was smooth and well integrated before pouring the next few drops of oil. The whisking will suspend the oil into the yolk mixture and adding the oil a little at a time will keep the mixture in a state of emulsion - which is what we want.
After about 1/3 cup of oil has been whisked in, you can speed up the pouring a bit. Make sure the mixture is back in emulsion before pouring any more oil. Once all the oil has been whisked in, you have mayonnaise. This is a good time to add any extras, a spoonful of dijon mustard and extra salt and black pepper is usually what I add.
Because handmade mayonnaise is mostly egg yolk, the mayonnaise will have a healthy yellow color. Store bought or machine made mayonnaise usually also contains egg whites which will lighten the color up as well as lighten up the flavor. Anything you don't use immediately, put it in a jar and refrigerate. It should hold for half a week to a week.
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2 large egg yolks | whisk | whisk oil in drop by drop |
3 Tbs. lemon juice | ||
1/4 tsp. salt | ||
pinch of white pepper | ||
1 cup oil |
You might note that I called both mayonnaise and vinaigrette dressing emulsions. But, a vinaigrette eventually seperates while mayonnaise maintains its state of emulsion. This is because of the egg yolks which contains a substance called lecithin (an emulsifier). You may have seen lecithin as part of the ingredient list of store bought ice cream and salad dressings. This substance when mixed with water (the lemon juice) and oil (the olive oil) helps hold the two together in suspension. Of course, if we kept mixing more and more oil into the mixture, we would eventually overwhelm the emulsifier and the whole emulsion would separate (at least that's what I'm told, maybe one day I'll do it to see what happens when you mix in too much oil).
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When you go to open your bottle of oil don't take the little foil seal off. Just poke a tiny hole in it with a toothpick. This way you can squirt a fine stream of oil into the blender while it it running.
Here is my OP (olive oil parmesan) dressing.
In a blender put
1 egg
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons of soysauce
pinch of fresh ground black pepper
Continue to blend these
Slowly add olive oil with a fine stream
until you get your desired viscosity
Add some shredded parmesan (to taste).
I like to leave some texture with the cheese
so don't over blend.
You can, of course, add some more olive oil while blending
until it has the consistancy of a mayonnaise spread.
This doesn't make much so you may want to double the recipe.
There's a type of mustard sold here (I live in Flanders, the northern region of Belgium) where the mustard seeds appear to be grinded only slightly and the 'skin' is still visible. This makes the mayonnaise look quite nice.
Adding finely chopped fresh herbs (e.g. basil) also works great for adding a visual touch...
As for oil: we use maize oil. Experiments with olive oil were not so successful, but we probably used a variety with more flavour to it. I will surely try your suggestion of extra light olive oil...
Enjoy!
I just wanted to share a little tip for mayonnaise that separates. I doesn't always work but if you put your separated mayonnaise into a food processor and whilst it is whizzing around, add a slug of hot water it usually fixes the problem.
I don't know why this works but it does.
Any vegetable oil can be used to make mayonnaise. I prefer oils with little flavor (canola or light olive) as opposed to oils with a stronger flavors (corn oil, peanut oil).
Calamansi juice will probably work. Generally, I find most people use vinegars or lemon juice. Calamansi might not be as acidic as either, but could produce a nice flavor unique to your homemade mayonnaise.
Experiment and have fun!
Michael
Did you add the oil very, very slowly? Add a few drop and whisk. The oil should be completely suspended in the liquid before applying more oil. Too much too fast can break the emulsion and it'll be runny no matter what you do. (not quite true, but you might as well start over - it's easier)
After the emulsion starts to hold and you add a tad more oil, it'll start to become more solid. If the emulsion has broken, then it'll separate. Only when you've got an ample amount of oil suspended, can you start drizzling.
I finally tried to make it in a food processor so that I could maintain constant movement but I honestly think that my problem was that I gave up too soon and there wasn't a high enough ratio of oil to the egg/lemon mixture for it to thicken. Anyway, this batch worked---not exactly perfect but I'm sure with experimentation I'll get it down, maybe even with doing with a hand whisk. Thanks for your posting, pictures and directions. Great site!
Of course eating raw eggs is a risk. In the United States, a small percentage of eggs are contaminated with salmonella (an often quoted statistic is 1 in 30,000 eggs are contaminated; risk increases a bit if eating eggs in a restaurant due to handling, etc.). Eggs are generally laid with salmonella from sick birds - You can reduce your risk by purchasing eggs from health conscious producers such as organic eggs as generally the chicken population is watched with more concern. Regardless of the type of egg you purchase, examine the eggs you plan to use. Use the freshest eggs you can get for this recipe. Don't use eggs with cracks in the shell (you can place the egg in a salted cold water bath and look for a stream of bubbles). When you extract the yolk, pay attention to the whites. They should be gel like and not watery. Also, the yolks should not break easily.
Keeping these things in mind reduces your risk of food poisoning from the raw egg yolk drastically. (Remember, randomly grabbing an egg is a 1 in 30,000 chance; in other words, you need to eat 20,800 random eggs in order to have a 50-50 chance of having selected a salmonella infected one. Picking and choosing reduces this risk and it's unlikely the average person will be eating this many raw eggs in their lifetime [about one a day]) If you are immune deficient or generally susceptible to illness, obviously do not consume raw eggs or raw egg products. Otherwise, if your eggs are fresh, healthy and refrigerated (refrigeration has more to do with freshness than anything else - eggs age slower in refrigerators than at room temperature), it should be safe to eat.
If you would like to cook the eggs, simply whisk the yolks with the lemon juice and then heat slowly (very slowly) while stirring until it reaches 160°F (about when the mixture coats the back of a metal spoon and the yolk starts producing a few bubbles). Heating too fast will result in scrambled eggs. Place the pan into ice water to stop the cooking and stir until the egg yolk cools down (try not to get water into the pan). then proceed with the recipe as before (add salt, pepper, oil).
There is great difference between the perfectly hand whisked variety, produced with great focus and concentration, for immediate service, and the Commercially Engineered feat of a glass-canned Hellmans. Both have their place.
The perfect hand whisked is analagous to a fine freshly whipped cream, where gloss and the folding of the peak show the perfect suspension of air to fat. In mayo, the hand whisked has a gloss and tip fold that Hellmans can never touch.
Yet Hellmans has its place in the real world kitchen. Let those among us who never use jarred mayonnaise cast the first stone. The Commercially Engineered Hellmans is a marvel in its own way. Engineers have studied the process of emulsion/suspension and provided a safe and shelf stable product, consistently replicatable with each production run in the factory. Can we hand-whippers claim that same consistency?
The quest for the perfect mayo can draw to common ground both the esthete and the engineer. Thomas Keller, the featured saint/iconic chef in Mark Ruleman's "The Soul of a Chef" talks about his daily quest in his formative years for the perfect hollandaise. Well folks, a hollandaise ain't nuthin' but a hot mayo made from butter. The quest is the same. I've been trying mayos for 30 years in every conceivable vessel that has a moving blade, enjoying the nuances of differences that each machine (including wrist) can produce, and also sheepishly disposing of some lamentable failures.
What really got me to thinking was the post by "anonymous guest', earlier in this string: "Place a "Stick blender" all the way to the bottom of the jar and slowly blend back to the top about 5 seconds. Instant mayo!"
Wow! Something clicked in engineering lobe of the brain: A jar is a cylinder, and has different equations for volume determination than has a sphere ( or functionally in the kitchen, a Hemi-sphere: a bowl). The food processor "bowl" is likewise a cylinder, and the blender vase a hybrid of the two.
So then I wondered: what do the real food engineers in the "Food Industry" do? How do they make mayo? Is it a hemispheric kettle with a rotating blade and a calibrated drizzle? A cylinder churn with a later piston extrusion to remove product to jar? My quick and paltry Google attempts did not get me to their production process. Several questions/ideas arise:
1) Any Hellmans' engineers want to share the process? Or, academicians in emulsion sciences?
2) Has anyone tried the jar and stick blender? The logarithmic timing of oil input in the "traditional" methods can be intimidating and also difficult to repeat the same way each time. It seems that the timing of the "raising of the stick blender" would be equivalently problematic.
3) The jar method could be very attractive from the standpoint of fewer vessels/quicker cleanup, and storage of product in fabricating vessel.
4) I haven't tried jar method yet (still have mayo from last week), but will soon do so, and would like to challenge those of us who are so inclined to also try and report results.
5) Variables would be:
a) Height and especially Width of jar;
b) diameter of blade area of blender;
c) displacement value of stick blender;
d) total volume of non-oil materials (egg, acid, others), also expressed as vertical inches in jar;
e) total volume of oil, also expressed as inches in jar. Ratio of "perfect cylinder" could thus be developed from a thru e.
f) description of timing/up-drawing.
g) others?
This could be fun. For those of us who were not permanently scarred by bad teachers requiring stultifying lab reports a' la nuns with rulers on knuckles, let's have a go at it.
Several asides:
1) If you don't yet have a "stick blender", get one. They retail from $25 on up, and are regularly available in your local thrift store as $5 discards from them who don't want to take new chances. Stick blenders eliminate the "transfer soup/etc to blender" step, and give total control over the puree process, and clean up with a zip in a glass of water.
2) Here are the results that I marked from my google search. May be helpful for "mayonados" ( = mayonnaise afficiandos)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/07/13/FDGLIDLQ2S1.DTL
http://www.wisc.edu/foodsci/courses/fs532/01mayonnaise.html
http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents/Mayonnaise.html
3) Finally, not to start a war on "which brand of commercial mayo is best", just know that each year when I travel to the piedmont region of North and South Carolina, I return home with a case of "Dukes" brand mayo. See Sauer's brand website for equivalency. Piedmont Carolina is, however, also the epicenter of distribution for the dreaded/beloved "liver mush".... a whole 'nother story for another thread. :)
Source: [u:de189a5d92]Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach[/u:de189a5d92] 2nd Ed. by Abigail Salyers and Dixie Whitt (Best book ever until the 3rd Ed. comes out)
Adding mustard changes the desired flavor of the recipe. A basic mayonnaise doesn't contain mustard, but if you want mustard flavored mayonnaise (which is a very popular variant), then leaving out the mustard is a bad idea. :)
Since you're allergic to mustard, I'd stick with the basic mayonnaise recipe (as shown, skipping the optional mention of mustard; you can try other variantions by adding garlic powder or another herb or seasoning of your choice instead if you want something more interesting than a basic mayonnaise).
When I wrote this article, it was my practice to drop in some Dijon mustard while making the mayonnaise, but now I just make a batch of plain mayonnaise and mix add-ins (depending on what food was being prepared) at the time of usage. The plain mayonnaise is very good by itself and adding flavoring later gives a lot of flexibility.
I tried the above recipe but my mayo came out runny, as if the ingradients never combined to make the mayo as intended.
Any ideas why this might have happened? I followed the directions as posted and used the same ingredients
Thanks,
Harley
This would seem to preclude egg yolks.
Would commercial lecithin, a mild oil, water, icing (confectioners) sugar and vanilla essence achieve this?
What are the factors that affect the separation of the emulsion?
I find having all the ingredients at room temperature before I start helps greatly in getting a good firm Mayo.
Why make your own - You have total control over the flavor - if you start with a good base it can become whatever you imagination can dream up and top bragging rights if it works out well.
Nice variation -
for a light fluffy mayo - whip the egg whites and fold in -
Variations rarely seen nowadays
- Wonderful if used with the right dish -
Grated truffles folded in just before serving
Sesame oil in with the v light olive oil
Almond four stired through
ground Anchovies
freshly roaster Black Pepper stired in 3 or 4 hors before needed.
coconut cream beaten in
what I have been taught so long ago is wrong, It is tolerant of acid.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&...act
I am assured that if you are worried you can add any commercially available preservatives that will dispatch the little horrors.
Location - Toronto Canada
Situation - Critical
Four egg yolks have been seriously beaten and dosed with lemon juice and vinegar. The remains then were dribbled with corn oil, resulting in a gooey mess. The victims have been bled. What once was a timesaving and cost effective way of keeping my butt in the house and avoiding a trip to the store has turned into what can only be described as a horrifying massacre, sparring no souls.
It was Fidel Castro that once said "... every man must beat his own egg sometimes..." and I believe that is what has happened here today. What possible beneficial outcome can be derived from this, this senseless slaughter of beautiful eggs in their prime can only measured be the deranged minds that perpetrated this atrocity.
May the Lord have mercy upon us all.
I always use whole eggs in my mayo and it NEVER failed. I actually wonder why the cook books are full of hints how to "save" your mayo... ;-)
My mum used her blender. The European blenders have a dripping hole in the cover, so the oil will definitely just drop in...
I use the "blender stick" and a rather narrow and high measuring cup (about 1 quart volume). I put the egg, some lemon juice or vinegar, salt, pepper and mustard in the cup. I mix until everything combines, then add the oil (I use sunflower seed) rather slowly. I have no clue how much oil is needed as I simply add oil until the desired consistency is reached.
My mum would sometimes make her own tartar sauce. With the blender still running, add pickles, onions and whatever you like. Voila!
As for using raw eggs - I eat eggs, even raw ones, since my childhood. I used different eggs, from "cage" to organic, and never had problems. Actually, my aunt working in a hotel got salmonella (and other guests) form a pasteurised, packed whole eggs! So much for the theory of heating the eggs to kill the bacteria...
PS-great page! I tried the bacon-in-the-oven-method and will use only this one from now on! Thanks!
I make it sometimes, and tastes great. Instead of using yolks use about half cup of milk. I heat 1/4 of the milk a little bit and then add the lemon juice, after that mix the rest of the milk and start doing the oil emulsion. Basically the same process as with the egg yolks.
What do you think?
Second time I tried it, the eggwhites wouldn't stiffen. I threw out 3 batches, including one where I had already begun to add the (expensive) flax oil. It was just too watery. I think the problem was that my wire wisk was coming apart and the wisk was rotating on the stem, this slowed the beating action. I threw the mix into the cuisinart instead, still the eggwhites wouldn't stiffen, but I decided to start adding some cheap olive oil to the mix and suddenly it began to emulsify and thicken. Once again I achieved a perfect, tasty mayo.
mixed with a few herbs, this is very tasty on grilled salmon. spread a layer on before grilling, it forms a nice tangy crust. then use it as a dip after grilling.
BTW, thanks for all the great tips, especially about the pusher on the cuisinart. I'll have to try that.
i failed miserably as expected but had to admit that my whisk was LAME-O. So with so much imprtance beingbeing placed on blending and emusifying 'well'..... i went off to 'Linen and things' and promptly bought myself a proper whisk
things certainly looked different using my new whisk but i got exhausted whisking and had to take a break to open a bottle of tylenol as well due to the clanging of my new and improved whisk against the bowl, giving me a rippin' good headache and all. and it made me wonder
it made me wonder how long this ridiculous recipe has to take to dutifully prepare. the instructions and hints offered to other posters who have failed is ONE DROP At A TIME until the 1st 1/3cup of oil is used.
so how long (in actual time increments) is one supposed to whisk between DROPS of oil? even if it's 10seconds..... how many drops of oil are in 1/3cup of oil X 10 seconds?
should this article have been written with the warning DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WITHOUT A WICKED NICE MIXER AND A WELL PAID ELECTRIC BILL ?
and finally, since much ado has been made @ ading oil too quicly and that your whole project is lost should you add too much oil too quickly - is there a way to know when that has actually 'happened' so we can get a clue as to when to toss it in the trash and begin hopefull anew instead of chasing our aching whisking muscles straight into a fruitless carpal tunnel syndrome?
Whisk until the oil is incorporated into the mixture. For me, that's about 8 strokes or so with the whisk - about two seconds. The unincorporated oil that you drop in looks like a clear glob where ever you drop it into the mixture. After whisking, the globs of clear liquid should no longer exist. If you're a fast whisker, this should not take very long. If it does, add a little less oil next time. If you can't get even a single drop of oil to incorporate, then the recipe has failed.
It has failed when you whisk and the oil sloshes around and won't magically disappear into the yellow mixture.
i made my first batch 2 nights ago for chicken salad. went with the whole egg approach. (1 egg, 1 cup oil, 2 T white vin., 1/2 t salt) since i was planning on feeding the salad to my little one, i heated it to 160 first. used veg. oil, and followed your directions, using a whisk. that got to be much too tedious, so i poured all the oil in my mixing bowl, and used my immersion (stick) blender (which by the wy was $20 US at kohl's).
came out FABULOUS!!!!! added some mustard, more salt, a lil pepper, and some garlic powder.
***add some diced chicken and onions for a great chicken salad!***
my point is this: spend the twenty bucks, and the oil process is vitually foolproof--and, cleanup's a snap!
If you prepare your own mayonaise---first make sure the eggs that you are using are salmonella free. Next Never leave homemade mayonaise out of the refrigerator long. Just about any kind of oil can be used but classic mayonaise is always made with Olive Oil. The fastest method is the blender or mixer method into which the eggs are beaten and the oiled drizzled into them. Never omit vinegar---it acts as a preservative and discourages growth of bacteria and salmonella.
If you add Garlic to it while making the mayonaise---it becomes the classic haute cuisine Aioli.
Egg safety has nothing to do with people's hygiene, and everything to do with factory farming. Whoever posted above about reducing your risk with organic eggs was right, and also the person who pointed out that Salmonella is very rare is also right. If you buy your eggs from a local organic farmer as I do, and have visited the farm and see happy clean chickens running around pecking in the grass instead of smashed into cages in a factory farm as I have, you will undoubtedly learn a lot and feel a lot better about eating your mayonnaise raw. If you cook the eggs to 160 you lose a lot of valuable enzymes and nutrients, so it's better to buy your eggs from a trusted source and then just make mayo as it has always been made. Add some whey and leave it out for 7 hours to allow the lactobaccilli (the same beneficial bacteria found in yogurt) to culture, thus preserving the mayo and its enzymes. See Sally Fallon's cookbook, "Nourishing Traditions", for more nutritional and lactofermentation info, including how to get whey from yogurt. Incidentally, her blender mayo recipe does not work as well as that of the Joy of Cooking, so I take a hybrid approach--NT ingredients following the JoC methodology.
- mix plain yogurth with mustard
yes that's all... give it a try the result is surprising and approximates mayonnaise quite accurately. Perfect for lobsters, eggs ...
Adding just garlic with yield you Aïoli, which is great with cruditées. For an interesting twist you can also add some ginger along with the garlic.
i don't want to say i like the canned stuff better referring to jellied cranberry, but i'm still open.
i ran out of mayonaisse. what am i to do? i'm glad i had lemons and eggs and oil. oh yeah, i did drop in some tabasco and sugar from looking at other recipes.
so far it's pretty good!
I make the mayonnaise in the beaker/container that came with the blender; it is rather tall and narrow, and fits the blender quite well -- as you might assume would be the case. After considerable experimentation, here's the method I use: Put into the beaker 1 whole large egg, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 tsp lemon or lime juice, 1 tsp vinegar (white, rice, apple cider are all good, but balsamic is too sweet), and 1/2 tsp salt. These ingredients together total about 2 fluid ounces, depending on the size of the egg. (I know this because the beaker is graduated in English and metric units.) Add enough extra-virgin olive oil to bring the total to 4 fluid ounces, then enough tasteless oil (I prefer canola or safflower) to bring the total to 12 fluid ounces. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ALL OF THIS BE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, OR THE MAYONNAISE WILL NOT EMULSIFY.
Put the blender all the way into the mixture, i.e., so that it is resting on the bottom of the beaker. Turn it on at high speed and count slowly to 10 without moving it. Then slowly move the mixer up and down through the mixture until the mixture is fully emulsified, i.e., thick -- like mayonnaise. The whole mixing process takes perhaps 30 seconds, if that, and it makes 1-1/2 cups (12 fluid oz.) of mayonnaise that will keep for at least two weeks in a tightly-closed container in the refrigerator. If the mixture isn't going to emulsify you'll know right away, because it doesn't even start to thicken and you end up very quickly with oily soup.
By the way: an immersion blender is a great tool, and not just for mayonnaise. I like to cook pureed-vegetable soups in chilly weather, and the immersion blender makes the process extremely easy. It also makes terrific milkshakes, without ice cream.
Today I started to make flax mayo ... And you know how hard that is.
Flaxseed oil just won't mix.
So I started thinking ... peanuts mix well ... always ...
so I added half a handfull of peanuts to the mayo. viola! thickens in seconds.
I even thing I know why.
Flaxseed oil is mainly ALA ... if you google it a bit you'll find that ALA is very unstable and it's conformation is high energy ... that's why it didn't thicken :)
vanderwaals bonds were stronger then the hydrogen bonds! :) so it stayed in oily state instead of the watery state (that's what were doing here ... we're trying to make oil act like water)
it thickened so much i had to add more oil! cause my blender wouldn't blend! :)
anyway flaxseed oil mayo is great ... you just have to add more lemon juice to make up for the flavor :)
I don't think lemon juice masks the flavor as much as citric acid bonds with ligands or other compounds that give it the smell.
I did it this way (the second time - you can add peanuts any time you want to thicken it):
blender:
peanuts (1/2 handfull)
lemon juice (2 & 1/2 lemons)
2 whole eggs
salt
blend until smooth
add all the oil (250 mL)
blend until smooth
if you want stronger mayo (thicker) add a few peanuts, if you want smoother, add more lemon juice
I think peanuts can stabilize ANY mayo (protein acts as a stabilizer ... i think it magnifies lecithins action)
Goran Matejcic <svizac@gmail.com>
It ended up a runny liquid, but the oil did not appear separated. The resulting liquid was a consistent yellow color throughout, no oil sitting at the top or anything, but it never got thick or creamy, just a liquid. Is it because I kept the whites in? I kept everything else in the recipe the same.
A week or so ago was the first time I made mayo because I ran out, as well, and needed to finish up the tuna salad I'd started. I didn't know anything about how to add the oil, but I put the eggs in the blender, slowly added oil and then the mustard powder, salt, pepper and agave. It was wonderful.
thanks
a test you could perform is break an egg into a small bowl.. if the yolk breaks then you could discard the egg (save it for cooking later, don't waste it). also, if the egg smells then it's no good. usually eggs are really good for being clean. i haven't come across an infected egg yet!
michael, i think your site is really fun. i'm gonna try the mayonnaise recipe now with first-cold pressed sunflower oil, as it's not refined (like light olive oil is). i've tried a different recipe with olive oil but i used extra virgin so it was really olivey tasting. thanks for taking pictures too, it's a very effective way to get people to do a recipe. i also like how you explain the emulsion thing and lecithin, as that kind of stuff really interests me.
see ya!
- t (my name is tina, too lol)
It ended up a runny liquid, but the oil did not appear separated. The resulting liquid was a consistent yellow color throughout, no oil sitting at the top or anything, but it never got thick or creamy, just a liquid. Is it because I kept the whites in? I kept everything else in the recipe the same.
Yes, I think leaving the whites in adds too much liquid. It thickens up when you only use the yolks.
Sometimes lemon juice is too acidic. You can dampen this by adding a little water. To do this, double the recipe using water instead of lemon juice (double the egg yolk and the oil and use the same amount of water as lemon juice you used earlier). To incorporate it into an existing batch, whisk the egg in first, followed by drops of the water until that is incorporated. Then drizzle in oil while beating to keep the whole thing in emulsion.
Anyway, back to Mayo: SciAm posited that it was possible to make a portion of Egg Mayonnaise with just one egg, and here's how:
Heat the egg to 67C/152F which is hot enough to destroy salmonella, and to coagulate egg white (144-149F) but not to fully coagulate egg yolk (149-158F). Use a hypodermic syringe to extract 1ml of egg yolk, raise the temperature and continue to cook the egg until hardboiled. Use the 1ml egg yolk to make a tablespoon of mayonnaise and serve.
The article was partly written by the late Professor of Physics Nicholas Kurti of the University of Oxford. He had an abiding interest in food and cooking and was a collaborator with Herve This, the first person to be awarded a PhD in Molecular Gastronomy. He also co-presented a cookery programme with Raymond Blanc on BBC.
I'm not sure what went wrong. Maybe a few details about the ingredients will help shed some light - what type and size eggs did your husband use? Since we're using just the yolks, if your yolks are smaller or larger than average then that might be a clue... Also, you may want to try this without a blender - it is possible that the blender is over-blending the ingredients.
gracias,
Maria
I wasn't quite satisfied with the consistency of my mayonnaise ie: not thick enough ( I used the whisk, slow drip method) and tried this suggestion to heat in the m-wave - the mayo became a disaster and now flows like the original oil. I wouldn't recommend it. I think the heat breaks the emulsion.
Is there such a thing as adding too slowly and whisking too much?
As far as separating, whenever this issue has presented itself I simply put the whole batch in a jar and put it in the refrigerator. Once it has chilled the (olive) oil will more easily emulsify, so even just shaking the jar will produce the desired effect for me. I doubt this would work with seed oil, including corn (a seed) oil, but works with olive oil.
I love this sight! The discussions are great. Everyone please remember that each person is intitled to a preference, and nobody can be "wrong" about something thy like! :)
Thank you, that will be all.
I think that I read somewhere before this site that ingredient temperature is crucial, and I did not take time to bring the oil to room temp. I also dumped in all the lemon juice at once and in a cookbook reference, it said to add only half the acid in the beginning. So I split that volume and added another yolk to start over, reserving the acid portion until later. Another dilemma was that my large food processor bowl does not allow enough blending contact to get the oil into emulsion reliably, so I transferred it to the smaller food processor cylinder I have, but the problem there is that I don't have a drip hole. So I had to stop and start, removing the blender top each time, in order to drizzle in oil (I ran it down the side of the container to slow down introduction) never knowing if I had gone too quickly in the first place. Ultimately after messing around like this for 45 minutes, I tried putting in a shot of hot water as someone suggested on this site, to save an emulsion. During this whole process I had only a slightly thickened mixture, not completely liquid but not thick either. Finally my husband said that I shouldn't worry because we would use it no matter what... so just be patient and accept whatever we got! Armed with that encouragement, I decided to add the rest of the original yolk and lemon mixture in addition to the 2-3T of hot water I had added. I think I had added 1 1/2 cups of oil before I finally achieved a thickened and emulsified product. Once I actually got it to thicken, I decided to refrigerate it and see if that tightened it up any. It appears to be stable or a little thicker. The oil I used was "Smart Balance" Omega which contains 1140mg Omega 3's and 4600mg Omega 6 per Tablespoon (4:1 ratio) from Canola, Soybean and Olive oils. In the future for a premium nutritional product, I will try a combination of grapeseed, which is light and flavorless and raises HDL cholesterol, with extra virgin olive oil, and flax. I will also try my stick blender in a mason jar. FYI if you think you might be using the mayonnaise for grilling purposes (just saw a yummy recipe for dressing shrimp with a mayo/apricot glaze) I would recommend grapeseed oil for it's very high temperature smoke point. Happy New Year everyone!
First, other than making sure all your ingredients are at room temperature, the culprit for messed up mayo is almost always adding the oil too quickly (especially in the beginning). I'm not a patient person, so I kept messing this up even though I *thought* I was adding oil incredibly slowly. You really do have to add it practically one drop at a time until you have at least 1/4-1/3 cup of oil emulsified.
But you don't have to toss the messed up stuff. Simply start a new bowl with one more egg yolk and start dripping in the messed up mayo in the same manner as you would the oil (except more slowly this time!) until you've added emulsified the messed up ingredients completely back into the new yolk. Then continue adding oil if more oil is needed. This works like a charm (as long as you do it slowly!).
I sincerely doubt that heating the emulsified mayo would give you the proper result. It might thicken, but the texture would be all wrong.
I made my mayonnaise today using BobH method (via the comments above on January 27, 2007) utilising my Dualit hand blender. I used 2 egg yolks instead of one whole egg (I needed some egg whites for my Blueberry Friands!). It has produced the best (and quickest) mayo I have ever made - thanks very much!!
I 1st went to my trusty "Joy of Cooking"...but was very disappointed with the taste of the fruits of my labor. I have no trouble getting oil fully integrated, but the yellow color and taste was not appealing. I will try recipe above IAW all of the great recommendations/warnings all have submitted!
salmonella is the most common (but not only) issue with uncooked egg product.
check your local markets for pasteurized fresh eggs - using the in-the-shell pasteurized variety should dramatically reduce the risk of salmonella in your homemade mayo.
do observe the requirements for refrigerated storage, etc. - you can not just leave it sitting at room temps at a picnic for all day . . .
I'm in a new-found "thrifty" mode now, unemployed and pinching pennies, and have been creating foods I would have normally bought at the store without thought. Mayonnaise is one of those things I feel I can't afford - especially since I've always been a fan of Best Foods (Hellman's, now that I live in Texas). The cheap stuff, and even Kraft, just aren't palatable to me.
So, I came upon this most wonderful forum and read everything about making mayonnaise, wanting some badly but dreading the sheer effort and risk of failure so strongly associated with the endeavor.
The entry above by BobH (January 27, 2007) describing his Bamix blender method sounded too good to be true ... but it was related with such authority, I decided to give it a try.
I used my simple Braun stick blender and the beaker that came with it, my lemon juice simulant and fresh ground yellow mustard seed. As I wrote in my notebook "OMG!". I've now made it twice - both times turned out perfectly. If you like the stiffer body of Best Foods or Hellman's, this'll do it for ya in spades. And it could not be simpler or easier to do. A perfect emulsion, so easy you can make it on demand.
Thank you many times over BobH, I hope you read my comment here.
Now for that lemon juice simulant. Like I said I'm pinching pennies (and I mean that literally), I can't go to the store every week, let alone afford, fresh lemons to be available. So I used my chemical stock ;) Into one cup of water I put 4 teaspoons of citric acid, one teaspoon of dextrose and 1/4 teaspoon of lemon extract. Except for the lack of pulp, the acidity, sweetness and nose are quite close to authentic (recipe is based on research).
The mayo recipe BobH gave uses olive oil to the 4 fl. oz. mark, then bland vegetable oil to the 12 fl. oz. mark. That is truly nice, if you are keen on the natural flavor of olive oil - and intend to use it with compatibly flavored foods. (And, incidentally, can afford EVOO). I will, on occasion, use that oil mix when I'm feeling luxurious - but I'm going to ration my fragrant green olive squeezings tighter than my desire for mayonnaise. Besides, now I can create wholly new flavors by basing the mayo on cheap and flavorless vegetable oil and adding any number of herbs or whatnot.
So, my recipe for a cheap, but bland, mayo is now:
1 whole egg, large
1 Tbsp lemon juice simulant
1-1/2 tsp yellow mustard seed, ground fine
1/2 tsp kosher salt, ground fine
vegetable oil to the 12 fl. oz. mark
Making sure everything is at room temperature first (I set the egg and lemon juice out an hour before making mayo), add the ingredients to the blender beaker in the order listed, completely immerse the blender and turn it on. Nutate the blender in the beaker and, after 6 seconds, bring the blender up then down in 4 second cycles, for 4 or 5 cycles. Stop as needed to get emulsion off the top of the blender head and back into the beaker, ready for another "smoosh" down with the running blender. It's all over and done in less than a minute!
On a final note, I want to express my sincere thanks to all the other posters here who, like I, have given many tries at homemade mayonnaise using the traditional recipes. I felt your (wrist) pain may times over. It is because this forum had all your comments, and the gem from BobH mixed in there, that I felt I was in good, authoritative, analytical company.
It is quite yellow, since it contains 4 egg yolks now instead of 2, but yummmmm, it is good. Oh, and I used the whisk attachment on my KA to beat it this time. I think my little stick blender (NOT a Basix, sigh) was not up to the task. So for now I will use the KA or try using the Cuisinart for the next batch. My roomie heard the mixer going at midnight and wandered in and asked me what I was making. When I told him "mayo" he asked if the store-bought stuff wasn't good enough for me....But then this is the same guy who turned up his nose last week at my from-scratch chocolate cake covered in ganache. He went to the store the next day and bought a cake mix and canned frosting and asked if I would bake it for him....Once again, I am so happy to find this forum where people understand and share my passion for cooking and creating food and understand that the journey is as satisfying as the destination.
Thanks for all the hints and tips on making it even better... it was great fun to read through all the posts.
I wonder if using a stick blender will make it even easier... off to try it now.
I'm not buying mayo anymore. This is definitely the way to go.
The mayo's not a complete disaster - it didn't curdle for a start (a good start in my mind) and I see what one blogger means about the bitter taste with olive oil (and I'm a lover of olive oil) but I'm not binning it.
It will be used and enjoyed with a big thank you to all the posters on this site - I've laughed and coooed and aaarh'd at many of the comments). All this info is now safely tucked away in readiness for the next batch.
Note to self:
Use a bit less salt next time
Try using egg yolks only
Perhaps 2 cloves as the original recipe suggested and not four (I do love my garlic - but crumbs - that's strong!)
So I'm now gonna give my jar of home-made (runnyish) mayo a good shake as one post suggests, and then get the family to eat it up quick so I can try again.
:)
Question: If i follow the recipes above and heat my eggs a little first to ward off disease, can i mix it into recipes even if they are in the fridge for more than a week (like in salad dressing) or should i toss homemade mayo recipes in a week just for safety?
Thanks, sorry for the long rant.
Oh, and that jerk who said we people who read this need to go out more should go jump in a lake! Find something that interests you to read, maybe the National Enquirer!
Thanks everyone, i'm looking forward to trying this.
Without preservatives, I'd still advise not to keep the mayo/salad dressing for longer than a week in the fridge.
It should be noted that this mayo has a lemony taste (which really depends on the flavor and strength of your lemons) but you can substitute the lemon juice with distilled white vinegar for a more neutral taste.
I'm not sure why your store bought mayo has such varying quality. I tend to buy Best Foods (Hellman's) as it's flavor is the most pleasing to my particular palate. Do you travel far from the store to your home (could there be lengthy exposure to heat or sun)?
Second time, I tried the immersion stick method. It took a little time off, but getting the right consistency was difficult.
This morning I used my junior Cuisinart (no whites) and it came out perfectly.
donichayen@yahoo.co.in
I'm going to try it (not tonight) but will post later on the result.
I'm thinking of subbing .25 of the oil with room temp clarified butter...
1 yolk from an extra large egg (or 1 large yolk plus a teaspoon of a second)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon dry mustard or ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup vegetable oil, such as canola or grape seed oil
Sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2-3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil (parsley, thyme, tarragon work,
as well, but do not use dried herbs)
Separate the egg(s), reserving the white. Place the yolk, mustard and lemon
juice into a small bowl and whisk together until well blended. Add oil a
couple drops at a time and whisk until blended. Continue adding slowly until
about a tablespoon has been added.
At this time the emulsion is established, and the oil can be added in a thin
stream with constant whisking. If you see oil that is not incorporated, mix it in
before adding more oil. When all the oil is added, continue mixing for a
minute or so, add salt and pepper to taste and mix in herbs.
I used a hand blender with only 1 beater attached.
You can play with the flavor at the end. I added some more salt, a little more lemon juice, and I also used plain yellow mustard. I also added a pinch of sugar.
Enjoy!!!
When in the past I have obtained runny mayonnaise, usually by pouring the oil too fast, I can fix it by starting again using the runny mayonnaise as I would use the oil.
Put the runny stuff into a jug with a spout,
Use one egg yolk beat until creamy
Then add a bit of the runny mayo VERY SLOWLY, mix with the egg using a mixer, and then add bit more oil, mix again and so on continuously mixing
It should start being emulsified very quickly
Thank you for the recipe, I was really in a jam.
So I tried Michael Chu's mayonnaise recipe, and it came out soupy and tasting of oil and salt.
Michael, if this is what you think mayonnaise should taste like, maybe you should get your lazy ass to the store, or send Tina there because this shit's HORRID!
Grow some fuckin' tastebuds and don't post any more recipes until you do.
Cooking for someone who is allergic to egg yolks and needing some mayo. I am wondering if anyone has made a decent mayo without egg yolks. I have read the info about emulison and I would like something that would work. Not being an engineer of any kind I need some help if there is any help for this question.
Gma Jan
Cooking for someone who is allergic to egg yolks and needing some mayo. I am wondering if anyone has made a decent mayo without egg yolks. I have read the info about emulison and I would like something that would work. Not being an engineer of any kind I need some help if there is any help for this question.
Are they allergic to the egg whites? It is possible to make mayo with egg whites, but a some of the flavor comes from the yolks.
He says that if an egg is opened and placed on an flat surface that the yolk should be well rounded not flattened(indicating a old egg)
Hope this is of some help :)
Saves on wastage.
2 egg yolks
2tbsp lemon juice
1tsp honey
1tsp yellow mustard (ran out of Dijon)
1/4tsp salt
1c extra virgin olive oil
2tsp yogurt (home made, too!)
I used the stick-blender-in-a-jar method (stick blender was $10 at Wal-Mart) by slowly pouring the oil in from a measuring cup. Then I added the yogurt (instead of whey), and I'm letting it sit for 7 hours now.
So far so good, but the olive oil taste is pretty strong (this oil also costs $17 for 500mL), so next time I'm going to try canola. I also think perhaps less oil (3/4c?) and more salt (1/2tsp?).
Any feedback?
"good" olive oil (extra virgin, first press, etc) often has a stronger flavor that the cheaper stuff (e.g. plain old "virgin") - that may explain to "too olivey" taste. I reserve those for dipping / dressings, etc., where the more noticeable taste is 'desired'
but certainly you can use other oils.
I'll offer the following for those who might experience similar doubts or care to read someone else's observations. First, the beginning is slow work but the "one drop at a time" is a bit of a misnomer. I keep a steady rhythm of drops coming from the bottle in my left, whilst I whisk away with my right. I pause every few strokes just to make sure nothing's broken, but at this point its such a froth that I'm not really sure I could tell anyway. I don't whisk particularly proficiently, just an average speed of maybe 180 rpm, but it's plenty fast enough. After the first third, you can pretty much add 1 tsp at a time, and work up to 1 tablespoon at a time by the first cup. And by "at a time" it really only takes a few sweeps with the whisk to reach an even consistency. The most unsettling part of going by hand is that it takes quite awhile to get anything resembling mayo. In fact, I had to go beyond the 1 cup M. Chu suggests to a full 3 cups to get a "Hellman's-like" consistency, perhaps because of the egg size. You can somewhat alleviate this by adding the liquid (lemon juice, vinegar, whatever) in small doses along the way, but if you just go forward with confidence things will work out fine using all the liquid at the beginning, though you may end up with quite a bit more mayonnaise then you intended.
I intend to continue to make attempts at the stick blender method, primarily out of the desire to save a little time and effort, but I'm planning to also investigate using a counter mixer, as it seems the closest mechanically to hand-whisking.
If anyone in the S-E Michigan area has been successful with the stick method, I'd love a demo. You can find my email on my profile.
Corn oil has a pretty strong taste doesn't it? I remember eating a fair amount of food prepared with corn oil while growing up, but now I can't think of a dish that wouldn't work better with some other oil... olive, peanut, nearly flavorless canola...
I used my 'best' olive oil because that's all I had around and I used an organic canola oil. I think those flavors just overwhelmed my tired mustard powder. ;)
Anyway, this is the first time in my LIFE that I've managed to make a decent homemade mayonnaise. Thanks!!!
(together we can beat those evil spambots)
I discovered two changes I would make on my next batch. It emulsified perfectly, by the way, but the key is to count to 10 with the hand blender in the bottom of the jar and not moving! Also, your ingredients must be room temp. Failure to do this will result in a failed product. My hand blender was also run under warm water as it is stainless steel and needed to be room temp, as well. I had some salad oil and had run out of olive oil so I used that. Then I put my eggs ( I used 2 whole eggs) into a cup of lukewarm water and let them set for a few minutes. I then added the other ingredients as suggested. The salad oil was too old and left a bad taste. This is my own fault, but I was desperate when I got home from work at 1:45 am to have something to eat and was out of mayo. I will also not use the dry mustard next time. I added a bit of ordinary yellow mustard to overcome the taste of the old oil and added a touch of garlic powder (will use fresh garlic next time but this was added after the fact so had to be powder)and a touch of prepared horseradish sauce. Not even a teaspoon, just a squirt after everything else had finished.
Truly, this is the easiest, best tasting mayo I have ever had, once I doctored to cover the taste of the oil. It was not rancid, just too old for this purpose. Thanks, everyone for all your tips. This was amazingly easy. I will never buy another jar of Best Foods again!
I just discovered this site about 3 weeks ago and stop here every time I need a fresh idea.
I love the postings of others as much as I do the recipes! Since I am a logic-based person, I particularly love the in-depth postings that go far beyond the recipe. Thanks for a great site with wonderful recipes and alterations to accommodate different tastes!
As I am just cooking for one, I halfed the recipe. I used 1 large organic egg yolk, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tbsp of water, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, and 10 tbsp vegetable oil. (These oils added up to about .5 cup). I put it all in my mini food processor while slowly adding the oil while it was blending. The consistency turned out very nice! The extra virgin olive oil taste was very prominent - next time I may add more lemon juice or use a different kind of olive oil.
Thanks for the great recipe with detailed instructions!
HOWEVER, I also love mayo. I just haven't been motivated to crack my shoulder open by whisking 400,000 drops-O-oil into a bowl for the potentially dubious privilege of being able to claim that I did it all by myself.
Nevertheless, the idea of using that stick blender for more than just mixing my probably not beneficial morning shakes was too much for me to bear; I HAD to make my own home-ish made mayonnaise.
For the record, I used yellow mustard, a TOUCH of Apple Cider Vinegar, the rest White Distilled Vinegar, a splash/dash of salt, and a wisp of pepper. For oil, about three tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, give or take, and the rest Canola Oil (I love all olive oil mayo, especially if I'm gonna convert it to an Aioli, but I wanted to get something that SORT OF approximated regular ol' mayo).
I used four yolks. . .I happened to have them on-hand anyway, having made some SCRUMMY-licious Meringues the evening before (Italian, naturally).
Method: (how I done it, for those of you who went to school with me):
Place your yolks in a stick-blender compatible container (I used a clean container that my Deli Seafood Salad Delight came in; washed and dried). Add the yellow mustard, vinegars, salt, pepper, and no more than one tablespoon of Olive Oil. Mix with a fork or appropriate fork substitute. Do NOT try to be fancy by using a Chopstick. Besides being culturally insensitive, it doesn't work very well, and you should be ashamed.
Place your almost irreplaceable stick blender all the way to the bottom of the container, and turn it on. Nothing fancy here, either, just get it turned on. Let it mix everything together for about 15 seconds, but not much more. Measure out a teaspoon of Olive Oil, or just fill the teaspoon if you want. Start the stick blender, and after about three seconds, add in the oil, a drop at a time, and don't be in such a hurry neither. It should take a while, so don't do this if you're waiting on a date.
Next, add the rest of the Olive Oil (or, if you're using a flavour and character-less oil, about one third of the total oil), as slowly as you can, or, if, like me, you were not possessed of patience, add each drop just as soon as you see it become totally incorporated into the mixture, but not even a fraction of a second before. This goes pretty quickly.
Now, add the remainder of the oil, in a slow, slow stream. Let me tell you something. This is the worrying part, but don't. The mayo will look like a holy, awful, foamy mess, almost right up to the moment it begins to thicken, which is, by the way, when you've added ENOUGH oil, slowly enough. If it doesn't happen, believe it or don't, ADD MORE OIL. Really and for true mayo has a LOT of oil in it per egg. Don't add no nasty whites, neither. . .really and for true mayo does not admit of egg whites; they're just added to support the body of the mayo and shortcut the important oil-adding and patience-giving mixing process.
Almost before you know it, it's mayo! Dispense into another container, or, ideally, into a squeezy bottle so you can daub, drench, and drizzle this finest of sauces onto practically everything, including your current, um, "partner."
And that, as they say, is that. Nummy, fast, portable, and, depending on who you're dating. . .just AMAZING fun. Homemade mayo. . .make some today!
Warms,
James
Technically, it wouldn't be mayonnaise then...
You can just try the egg yolk with oil - should come together.
So many recipes call for mayo, but my daughter can't have anything with lemon juice or vinegar. That eliminates so many salad options. I'll give it a try and hope it works.
I'm not sure where I saw this- but it is not original, take the same basic tofu mayo, and add miso, garlic, and seaweed (nori, hijiki, or wakame) and you have a fairly vegetarian friendly Caesar salad dressing.
To whiten normal mayo, add a spoonful of boiling water at the end, and the colour will lighten up immediately. This works with hollandaise and bearnaise sauces as well.
you could use citric acid in water. the FAILSAFE diet (fedupwithfoodadditives.info) uses citric acid in place of vinegars or citrus and has recipes and usage guides...