Homemade mayonnaise

It had been a while since I last made mayo, and my favorite big fat cookbook is still packed in a box somewhere, so I went Googling for a recipe and came up with a blender recipe that calls for:

1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (I used about 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1-1/4 cups oil -- half vegetable oil and half olive oil

It emulsified nicely, but I thought it was too salty and tasted more like olive oil than mayo (I used the good Tuscan stuff from Costco), although it made a perfectly nice egg salad.

What proportions do you use?

I was interested to see that Alton Brown advocates leaving the freshly made mayo out at room temperature for for 4 to 8 hours to allow the acid to kill any bacteria that might have contaminated the egg. I didn't come across this advice till too late, but perhaps next time. I've also seen recipes that add whey plus standing time -- these claim to produce a longer shelf life. Has anyone tried this? One egg's worth of mayo makes a lot more than I'd typically use in a week, so longer-keeping mayo would be nice.

this one from the NYT was pretty good
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/dining/easy-homemade-mayonnaise.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/12459/Mayonnaise.html
INGREDIENTS

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cold water
3/4 cup neutral oil such as safflower or canola.
the second link has the directions

The easiest way to make mayonnaise is to use Kenji Alt's "Two Minute Mayonnaise recipe from Serious Eats. link!

All ingredients go into an immersion blender cup. Wait 15 seconds till they separate. Place blender in bottom and turn on. Slowly lift until oil is emulsified. Season.

Yes, it works every time.

Tim

Tim wrote:The easiest way to make mayonnaise is to use Kenji Alt's "Two Minute Mayonnaise recipe from Serious Eats. link!

All ingredients go into an immersion blender cup. Wait 15 seconds till they separate. Place blender in bottom and turn on. Slowly lift until oil is emulsified. Season.

Yes, it works every time.

Tim

That's a pretty interesting method. Those are pretty much my exact proportions, too. (1 cup oil to 1 egg yolk to about a tablespoon or so worth of acid [lemon or vinegar] and mustard.) I just add salt to taste. I make mine with 100% olive oil, though, as I like the olive oil flavor and can't get that from store-bought varieties.

Binko wrote:
That's a pretty interesting method. Those are pretty much my exact proportions, too. (1 cup oil to 1 egg yolk to about a tablespoon or so worth of acid [lemon or vinegar] and mustard.) I just add salt to taste. I make mine with 100% olive oil, though, as I like the olive oil flavor and can't get that from store-bought varieties.

Binko,

This method should not be used with extra-virgin olive oil mayo. The rapid emulsion of the hand blender breaks down fatty acids coating the bitter tasting polyphenols in the extra virgin olive oil. The result is bitter tasting mayo.

Tim

D'oh! Thanks for the warning. Maybe I'll try it on some neutral oil hot-pepper based mayo-type emulsion.

That's really interesting to hear about olive oil. I've always just hand-whisked it, so it sounds like any sort of blender method would produce bitter tasting mayo? I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison to see how marked the difference is.

Tim, this bit about olive oil becoming bitter is really interesting. I've always found mayo with olive oil to be really bitter and wondered why so many people seem to recommend olive oil. Now I know the source of my confusion.

I have always been surprised, given that I think of mayo as somewhat delicate, at the enormous variations in technique and proportion that all seem to work out.
I haven't made it in a while, but I think I have always used the version from the orig. Silver Palate---or some personal variation thereon.
I always took it as conventional wisdom that "good," i.e. intensely flavorful olive oil, was not recommended for mayo, as overpowering. I used to use either "pure" or evoo mixed with a neutral oil, or less intense oils such as those from France or Spain vs. Italy.

Well, it certainly does depend on your expectations. I use a good EVOO. But I don't slather mayo on my dishes. It's only a light coating. If you're shooting for something akin to Hellman's or Kraft or whatnot, no, you don't want to use pure olive oil. You don't want to use any olive oil at all. But when I use mayo, it's by the half or maybe full teaspoon per serving, not tablespoon or more.

I don't think it's simply a question of emulating bland commercial product or not. It's a matter of the heaviness and intensity of great olive oil, vs. a lighter, tangy, more lemony flavor/presence. Classic mayo vs. aolii, for example. There's a whole spectrum of "expectation" for what you might most want to accent a particular food. I think.

I've been making my own mayo for a while and this thread bears out what I've found. Making the actual product, which I'd been lead to believe was very tricky, is a simple as can be. However, this is a difficult item to season correctly. Getting just the right balance to suit your taste is not easy. I don't have any fixed proportions, as a result. I throw some salt, mustard and acid (usually lemon juice) in and then adjust the seasoning as I get close to completion. I never measure the oil, either. I just start whisking until it's reasonably thick, although I never try to get it as thick as the commercial stuff.

Jonah

mrbarolo wrote:There's a whole spectrum of "expectation" for what you might most want to accent a particular food. I think.

Oh, sure. No argument from me. I use commercial mayo for about 90% of my uses. When I make homemade mayo, it's for a very specific need. Sorry, but most folks don't want potato or macaroni salad or whatever made with homemade mayo, no matter how good it is. You just don't mess with expectations like that, unless you happen to have a lot of foodie friends who are into that kind of stuff.

Binko wrote:That's really interesting to hear about olive oil. I've always just hand-whisked it, so it sounds like any sort of blender method would produce bitter tasting mayo? I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison to see how marked the difference is.

I don't think so. I made my mayo in a regular blender, and it doesn't taste bitter, just olive-y, like the oil itself. An immersion blender in a narrow cup may be different. I don't know. My ancient blender struggled a bit as the emulsion thickened, and I had to do on-off turns to incorporate the last half of the oil. Next time I'll try the food processor.

Binko wrote:

mrbarolo wrote:There's a whole spectrum of "expectation" for what you might most want to accent a particular food. I think.

Oh, sure. No argument from me. I use commercial mayo for about 90% of my uses. When I make homemade mayo, it's for a very specific need. Sorry, but most folks don't want potato or macaroni salad or whatever made with homemade mayo, no matter how good it is. You just don't mess with expectations like that, unless you happen to have a lot of foodie friends who are into that kind of stuff.

Though I've never tried homemade mayo in potato salad, it reminds me of a piece I saw on PBS' Lost Twin Cities about Charlie's Cafe Exceptionale. Apparently, this place was the restaurant bar to see and be seen for about 50 years in Minneapolis. Every movie star, athlete, etc would stop by when in town. Anyway, they were famous for their potato salad and never released the recipe. The only thing that was mentioned was that the potato salad was made with homemade mayonnaise. http://www.tpt.org/?a=productions&id=26

Huh. Perhaps my theory is wrong.

LAZ wrote:I don't think so. I made my mayo in a regular blender, and it doesn't taste bitter, just olive-y, like the oil itself. An immersion blender in a narrow cup may be different.

Only extra virgin olive oil has the polyphenols that whip into a bitter taste.

Tim

Interesting. I found this article here about the whole EVOO polyphenol phenomenon, for those interested.

Tim wrote:

LAZ wrote:I don't think so. I made my mayo in a regular blender, and it doesn't taste bitter, just olive-y, like the oil itself. An immersion blender in a narrow cup may be different.

Only extra virgin olive oil has the polyphenols that whip into a bitter taste.

Tim

Yes, it was extra-virgin olive oil from Tuscany. However, it may be that the polyphenol bitterness is one of those things that people sensitive to bitter flavors taste more than others do.

also i know that when i make something i expect a certain color..homemade mayo can beyellowish due to the mustard and yolk but putting just a splash of water in turns the resulting mayo white....the water also allows the egg to hold more oil...also just like hollandaise, the mayo should always be seasoned in the begining because it becomes grainy otherwise

gocubs88 wrote:also i know that when i make something i expect a certain color..homemade mayo can beyellowish due to the mustard and yolk but putting just a splash of water in turns the resulting mayo white.

At what point do you add the water? And how much is a splash? A teaspoon? A tablespoon?

Back when this thread started, I lost my post . But I'm glad to see this conversation has continued because I'm a new lover of Mayonnaise. I always wonder if there's a recipe for "small batch" mayo because as much as I love it, I won't finish a full batch in a week & it tastes so much better than anything I've had from the store. Although it's been nice to discover TJ's organic mayonnaise that has no added sweeteners.

Thoughts?

basically any time you emulsify egg yolk, oil and a touch of acid you're going to have mayo. So you can do as small a batch as you like-right?

boudreaulicious wrote:basically any time you emulsify egg yolk, oil and a touch of acid you're going to have mayo. So you can do as small a batch as you like-right?

You're kind of limited by the size of the egg. I suppose you could beat the yolk (or the whole egg if you're doing a blender version) and then use only part of it, but then you have to feed the rest to the cat.

boudreaulicious wrote:basically any time you emulsify egg yolk, oil and a touch of acid you're going to have mayo. So you can do as small a batch as you like-right?

True, but to get the proper consistency, about a cup of oil to a medium-to-large egg yolk is about right.

BTW, I did the blender method today with the EVOO, and there is an obvious bitterness to it that I dont' get with hand whisking it. That's pretty interesting.

Leftover turkey, no Hellman's. Should have gone to the store for Hellman's, made mayo instead. Was tasty enough as mayo goes, but for leftover T-Day turkey nothing but Hellman's will do.

I don't have a recipe for homemade mayo, but being from the South, I do have a story ...

When my father-in-law passed away, a visitor dropped by my mother-in-law's home with a gift of food, as is common most everywhere. In this case, the gift was a quart jar of mayo she had made herself. I can still remember her visit, but the really memorable part was her comment about her gift -- "now, watch out with that mayonnaise -- if you're not careful, it'll turn back on you!"

I would like to tell you what it tasted like, but we were all too afraid to try it!

Actually, now that I think about it, I do have a recipe around here somewhere for a walnut-based mayo that I made to go with broiled Cornish hen halves. It was quite tasty, though I never made it again. Not sure why, it wasn't difficult at all. (I had clipped the recipe from the weekly newspaper food column.) I guess you can use just about anything oil-based to make mayo.

Sharon

the whisk to bowl ratio looks kind of off there G? little whisk / big bowl mean way more work for me....
I like small bowl and BIG whisk....

mhill95149 wrote:I like small bowl and BIG whisk....

Never gave whisk size a thought, mayo came together fairly quick. Was a tasty mayo, k-salt, lemon juice/water, board/knife pureed garlic, cayenne and a wee bit of Co-Op hot sauce, but there is just something magical about Hellman's and leftover T-Day turkey.

A followup to my original post: The mayo I made from that recipe kept in the fridge for more than a month, until I used it all up. No separation or change in flavor over time.

That is what I was wondering...how long should we keep home made mayo. I have always thrown mine out after about a week thinking it was not good. I have found recipes for one egg mayo and even that makes a lot. I've made it with immersion blenders, whips and also small kitchen processers and its always easy to make and tastes so good. I agree a turkey sandwich needs an extra zip that only Hellmans can provide. I love the home made mayo on fish, adding herbs such as dill or chives to make a kind of tartar sauce.