Mayonnaise, what's your favourite method?

[hwinpp]

For some strange reason I was asked last night how to make mayonnaise and my reply was to buy it because making it yourself is too difficult.

I've got a hand held stick mixer with several interchangeable 'endings'. Would there be one that I can use to beat the egg yolk and dripping oil mixture? What else goes in? Salt? Lime juice?

If it's too difficult I'll buy a jar of it, but what's mayonnaise called nowadays?

I've bought it before but it doesn't taste right.

[Deleted]

www.marmiton.org/Pratique/Techniques-Culinaires-Video-Cuisine_faire-une-mayonnaise.aspx

[fumobici]

That recipe for mayo looks perfect K2. Almost as much mustard as yolk, no overpowering citrus juice and a completely raw product not ruined by pasteurization. Also love the way it was made completely by hand without using an electric motor powered device.

As I said, perfect.

[Deleted]

However, a "gentle" motor device can also be used. Let's say that people with arthritis are authorized to do so.

[lagatta]

I have arthritis and have never had a problem using a whisk. It is very much the type of exercise that is recommended, though of course each case is different. Fumobici, you don't like citrus juice? I don't like overuse of it, but I'd prefer citrus juice a hundredfold over crap commercial mayo based on vinegar - yecch (not even mentioning the sugar - vomit).

[hwinpp]

Ok, thanks.

Got your hint there, Fumo...

I wouldn't have added sugar or vinegar (though vinegar is added in K2's video).

[fumobici]

I'd prefer none but a few drops of lemon juice is tolerable. Most of the foodies I've known who make their own mayo tend to overdo it and the mayo ends up tasting lemony or worse limy. Did you watch the video? The woman adds a tiny dash of vinegar just prior to it being done. Perfect. And sugar? In mayonnaise? No. I mean god no.

Powered prep devices obviously make good sense if one is cooking in quantity but I feel too often quality suffers. You necessarily don't have the same degree of control and aren't as aware of the state of whatever process is ongoing in a food processor and sometimes the product isn't comparable. Try making pesto in a processor, then using the same recipe make it in a traditional stone mortar and pestle. The processor made is I think far less interesting.

[hwinpp]

I agree with you re the pesto, I've a pixie at home that does t by hand.

I just didn't realize a bit of whisking is all you need...

Yes, I've downloaded the video and show my pixie just in case she really wants home made mayonnaise

[bixaorellana]

It's good to know all of this, although I'd never bother unless the mayonnaise was meant for something like fresh asparagus or grilled salmon, or something equally special.

I'm not adverse to using the blender, either, even though it's a pain to get the mayo off the blades. My first blender, an Osterizer, back in the sixties, had a recipe for mayonnaise that was quite nice. It seems to me it used a whole egg plus one egg yolk, also lemon juice and no sugar.

This will put purists around the bend, but there are some interesting ideas for gussied-up mayos on this page. (although I don't get the use of sugar in the base recipe)

And, while the purists are still reeling: a recipe for blender hollandaise and one for blender béarnaise.

[Deleted]

I don't make my own mayonnaise, but I know that I should. Just remembering the mayonnaise that my grandmother made for her spectacular Sunday presentations should convince me to never eat mayonnaise in a jar again. Damn, that stuff was fantastic!

[bixaorellana]

Really and truly, jar mayonnaise and the correct homemade stuff are two different things, each with their proper uses. The type of spectacular Sunday presentation your grandmother made would call for nothing less than the real thing.

However, jar mayo is fine for many uses. My egg salad or potato salad is not so subtle and delicate that it deserves real mayonnaise. Ditto the tuna salad I'm going to put on commercial sliced bread.

Should you attempt to reproduce the emulsified family treasure, Kerouac, this may or may not help. I'm passing it on under the assumption that it's a basic, classic recipe.

From Julia Child: 1st page has chart for making various amounts, the 2nd has the recipe & a photo of something that looks to have come from a jar.

[hwinpp]

Yes, my girlfriend was asking how to make it because she was planning on making egg salad. I've now convinced her to make an egg& noodle salad with the (to be made) mayonnaise.

[tod2]

I haven't had homemade mayo very many times in my life but remember the time I first tasted it like it was yesterday!
I was invited to lunch with a Portuguese man and his friends from Luanda here on business. I was a very young secretary, he was 'mature' and on an expense account no doubt.
The most enormous bowl of freshly just cooked langoustines was put in the middle of the table and next to it , another bowl of yellow creamy homemade mayonnaise(made by the chef and owner).
I was shy, never saw a lango in my life but soon got the hang of ripping off the head and giving it a schlerp then dipping the tail into the thick mayonnaise. Surprisingly I remember asking what it was as it was very mild and not tarte at all.

Mmmmm, maybe I could try it again - the mayo & lango's, not the businessman

[LouisXIV]

kerouac2 really liked your mayo video. I just finished making some and it came out well. Just a couple questions, I don't understand French that well. Is that mustard a Dijon? What would you say the amount of oil is used and what kind of oil? Could olive oil be used? Also what kind of vinegar was used? I used canola oil and white wine vinegar and it came out well. I may be on the way down the street to McDonalds for an order of fries to go with my new home made mayo and pretend I am eating them in Belgium.

Many years ago I was a Mess Sargent in the army and my first cook was a chef by profession. I remember him saying that he always had a problem making mayo in February because of the eggs at that time of the year. Has anyone ever heard of that problem?

[Deleted]

There are all sorts of mayonnaise variations, so quite a variety of oils, vinegars or mustards can be used. What you used is just fine, but do not hesitate to experiment in the future.

(The only kind of smooth mustard that exists in France is Dijon mustard. The competitor is Meaux mustard, which is the old fashioned kind with the seeds in it.)

[bixaorellana]

Did anyone see this article about beating a little water into mayonnaise to keep it emulsified?
www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/dining/easy-homemade-mayonnaise.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120523

"Why did a teaspoon of water make such a difference? ...

A little water physically broadens the space between fat droplets, helping them stay separate ... If the oil droplets don’t stay distinct from one another and evenly dispersed in the oil, the mayonnaise will break. ...

Another reason to add water is that it dilutes the yolk and opens up the complex matrix of lecithin and proteins it contains ... The lecithin binds the oil droplets and the water in the yolk ... As long as they are bound together, the emulsion is stable. ... "

[Deleted]

There are lots of recipes in France that talk about adding a teaspoon of water when using eggs. Since eggs slowly dry out over time -- even through the unbroken shell -- adding some water just reconstitutes the way the eggs should have been.

My plastic microwave egg poacher also says to add a teaspoon of water on top of the egg.

[bixaorellana]

Yes, I'm sure that when I first learned to make mayonnaise, the water addition was to be found in recipes both printed and verbal.

I've noticed that in the NYTimes food section (also their health section) that many things seem oh-wow new to their writers. How old are these people?

I didn't think about that element of the eggs drying out. I should have, as I've mulled over the aspect of their somewhat porous shells. Eggs here are always sold unrefrigerated. You can get them in cartons at the supermarket, but in other stores they're always setting uncovered in "conos" of 30 eggs. Good little American that I am, I take the standard 12 egg carton* to the corner store to buy mine, then take that home & put it in the refrigerator. Well, the carton is just practical, as carrying eggs home in a plastic bag is just too nerve-racking. I assume the fridge would be more drying than the open air, which is why I keep the eggs in the carton rather than in the egg bin in the fridge door. And surely keeping them cool prolongs their freshness, right?

* I guess many people don't use the supermarket here, as my egg carton has been commented upon several times. And the shopkeeper always counts the eggs after putting them into the carton. ;D

[Deleted]

Eggs are not sold refrigerated in France either, although refrigerators always have the egg cups, so I guess that it is recommended to do so sooner or later. Since I am the sort of person who can actually eat a month old egg, I can attest that what is in the shell after a month is much smaller than in a fresh egg.

[imec]

May 23, 2012 17:39:27 GMT bixaorellana said:

And surely keeping them cool prolongs their freshness, right?

I believe so. Another method is to immerse them in water glass (Sodium Silicate) - in which case they will remain "fresh" for up to 9 months.

[bixaorellana]

I'd forgotten about that. People used to call it "isinglass". I used to live in a marina in Florida. There was a motormouth woman there who always referred to the clear pvc used for outside boat windows as isinglass. It was one of those things that always set up a weird mental image for me.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass

You know, most of the old people we know aren't old enough, as it were, for us to get direct knowledge of old methods of keeping food usable in the pre-refrigeration era. My grandmother moved to the country when she got married (1921) & told me sausage was kept fresh by being covered with lard so no air could reach it.