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Mayonnaise has been the bane of my Nourishing Traditions existence. I’ve made it no less than a half dozen times, and I just couldn’t get the hang of it, and the sight of a dark yellow mayo has freaked me out on numerous occasions. I hate to admit it but I’ve been pretty attached to the commercial white, fluffy national brand now practically my entire life. I even ate mayonnaise sandwiches as a kid.
Peering in my fridge at the huge Costco sized jar of the commercial brand, I have known for awhile that I was going to take what I’m calling ‘The Mayo Plunge’. As the level in the jar of GMO soy and cottenseed oil fluffy goodness went down lower and lower, I was getting more and more nervous. I have even kept the family from making potato salad or other mayo-heavy dish in order to stretch the amount.
In Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon says that if you find the taste of olive oil in mayonnaise too strong, that you can use a cold pressed sunflower oil. I bought some of this light yellow colored oil in preparation for this moment.
1st Attempt – Low Tech
Since I had always had failed attempts in the food processor, I also decided to go primal and use a bowl and a whisk with this attempt.
I broke the eggs into the bowl (one full egg, one egg yolk, at room temperature) and added the teaspoon of dijon mustard and some salt. I didn’t add the lemon juice. I figured there was enough acid in the dijon, and I’m not big on lemony mayo. REALLY just trying for simplicity here. I checked the recipe again, is this really all of the ingredients (besides oil of course)? Seems simpler than I remember.
Since I used really good eggs, this mixture was a dark yellow. It got me thinking… how in the world is the commercial mayonnaise white? They say that they’re using eggs, but how is that possible? Anything with egg yolk in it will be slightly yellow. Even if you used the light colored yolks. If they add egg yolks, it must be an extremely small ratio compared to the oil and whatever else. Hmmm, maybe mayo USED to be yellow! And their latest marketing campaign claiming that they’re ‘real food’ with pictures of whole eggs… HILARIOUS!!
I drizzled about one cup of sunflower oil into this mixture and started whisking. My right arm started to get pretty tired but I kept going. After about 2/3 of a cup, the mayo started to come together and look more ‘saucy’. Finally I was done so I added 1 tablespoon of whey. You don’t have to add whey, but it will keep a lot longer in the fridge.
I dipped the very tip of one finger into the mayo and tasted it. I tried to close my eyes but my mouth still saw the yellowness and freaked a bit. But I tasted it, and it did taste a little bit mayo-like. I let it sit on the counter for 7 hours to ferment. This is the part that most Americans would swoon over, as YOU CAN’T LEAVE OUT MAYONNAISE OR YOU’LL GET SICK! At least that’s the belief here. But the whey allows the good bacteria to grow, which then is a natural way to protect the mayonnaise from spoiling.
Taste test: too oily, too runny. Back to the drawing board…
2nd attempt – High tech & Success!
For my second attempt I went high tech, by the advice of Victoria and Rachelle on the Nourishing Cook’s Facebook Page (please come join us and become a fan). I used my immersion blender and tried to rescue my previous attempt. I added a bit of the lemon juice that I left out in the previous attempt, and put the mayo in the cup that came with my stick blender. Blended it up, and it turned a lighter yellow color and fluffed up nicely! It even tasted more like mayo! SUCCESS!
Just in case this whole thing was a fluke, I decided to make it one more time. This time I measured the oil first into the cup (against all mayo rules) and then added all of the other ingredients on top. Then blended. SUCCESS AGAIN!! This mayo took me literally less than 5 minutes to make.
Now I just need to get used to the color and the slightly different taste. Will you take the mayo plunge with me?
Jump to the mayonnaise recipe.
Photo courtesy of little blue hen on Flickr
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been making my own mayo from scratch for a while now. I could have told you about the immersion blender. It’s the only way to go.
If you don’t like lemon, use a little white vinegar instead. And instead of prepared dijon, I just use mustard powder. Actually, I usually leave the mustard powder out because my wife likes it better that way. So it’s just egg yolks, white vinegar, salt and olive oil.
Instead of extra virgin, I use olive pomace, which has almost no flavor. (It also has a higher smoke point. It’s what I use for frying.) You think yellow mayo is weird, you should see the color mine is. If it bothers you, just think of mayonnaise as a close cousin of Bearnaise and Hollandaise, which it is.
Oh, one last thing. As you keep adding oil it keeps getting thicker, up to a point, then starts getting runny pretty fast. I just keep adding oil until it’s “thick enough” then stop.
Ahhhhhh I think you finally gave me the courage to try NT mayo!!! I was wondering about the EVOO taste too…I’ll have to look for some sunflower oil and maybe do 50/50 blend. I have an immersion blender too, so this would be great! I’ve been worried about high-teching it because I didn’t want to break the mayo and waste good eggs. I just bought 3 dozen eggs…and I’m almost out of the crappy store mayo..hmm…I might have to try this next week!
Okay….you talked me into it. Now I just need to go out and buy one of those immersion blender thingys and some sunflower oil. I’ve actually been wanting to try this for a long time but the dripping the oil in the food processor just seemed difficult.
Thanks,
Jana
A trick Julia Child taught me (okay, not me PERSONALLY) : Warm the bowl slightly before you start to add ingredients and always make sure your ingredients are room temp. You can even sit your mixing bowl down in a larger bowl that has a little warm water in it when you mix it. Not too hot, don’t want to cook the egg, just warm. If you don’t have an immersion blender, this method helps make the emulsion come together more reliably and quickly.
I love the different flavors and textures of using different oils. You can even use liquified bacon fat for bacon mayo, or substitute a little melted coconut oil for some of the oil.
I took the mayo plunge when I first started learning the NT ways, and kept trying over and over for more than a year. I finally decided to stop wasting money. I’ve been trying to figure out other sandwich spread substitutes, with not much success. I tried sunflower oil, coconut oil, etc. but it just always tasted bad to me. Maybe I’ll give it one more try with the pomace, but I don’t think I’ll invest in the immersion blender yet.
I have made a few alterations to the NT recipe and have 100% success. Yea. Not more throwing out my money. Changes I have made are: only use the yolks, decrease the mustard to 1/8 tsp, increase the whey to 2 TB. I do use a food processor. I am SURE to mix the egg yolks a full 2 min to warm them up, that is the secret to make it set. I add the olive oil drop by drop like th recipe recommends, but only for the first 1/2 cup, then I just pour in the rest. Then I wait to add the whey until it is done. I fine it doesn’t even have to wait to be thick, it is immediately thick. Finally this is simple.
I do the mayo in my good old stand mixer. It doesn’t take more than 8 minutes and I’m good to go. I’m testing out different versions of olive oil since my hubbie is not enjoying the strong taste of the EVOO. But, I want to get all the benefits without using bad oils.
Jennie,
Even if you don’t do the NT mayo, you really should get the immersion blender. It’s so super handy for blending soups and making smoothies and milk shakes…way easier than breaking out the blender (and safer than using the blender when working with hot soup).
It’s definitely a must have in my fairly spartan kitchen.
I made mayo this past weekend and had it on some of my homemade oat bread. Yummy! Thanks for the inspiration.
Hello! I’ve been following this blog for some time now and I love it. You have encouraged me to try the recipes in NT, and being one who likes to have a photo along with a recipe, I really was missing that in the NT book.
I tried making NT mayo a while back and I made it using olive oil and in a food processor. Failure. It tasted nothing like mayo, was very yellowy and wasn’t as thick as I’d like. But, the other day I read your mayo post and that night we decided to make some homemade burgers. I had some store-bought mayo but I thought I’d give homemade mayo another try… it was a huge success! I used the immersion blender with the whisk attachment and I used only sunflower oil. Not only was as thick as regular mayo it was almost just as white!! And it only took 5 minutes to make!! Thanks to you, I’ll never buy mayo again!
Peggy stole my comment
which was to use a Julia Child recipe.
I do tons of homemade mayo all the time. I use my blender now, but have used my food processor too. It is so easy as both of them have a drip type top and I just pour the oil in and it slowly drips in. I have tried the immersion blender, that is how I made it first, but oh how the blender is so much easier!!
Here is the way I make it, very close to yours I think.
http://shelookethwell.blogspot.com/2010/02/delicious-healthy-homemade-mayonnaise.html