Mayonnaise

After reminiscing yesterday about my first month at culinary school, I couldn't resist making mayonnaise today. I am a little sad to say I am out of practice.

One of the timed tests in Culinary Foundations 1 was making mayonnaise. We prepared our stations (cutting board, mixing bowl, whisk, squeeze bottle, sanitizer bucket and towel) and when the Chef said "Go!" we gathered our ingredients from the back table and went back to our station and mde mayonnaise. I don't remember how much time we had, but I do remember that it took me 4 minutes to gather ingredients and make mayonnaise by hand. It took me more than twice that tonight. I made it by hand tonight, but it is easier to use a stand mixer. (8+ minutes constantly and vigorously whisking gets tiring. Just saying...)

Before we can make a mayonnaise, we need to learn about emulsions. Mayonnaise is essentially a mixture of oil and vinegar, but the two liquids do not separate. The oil is broken down into tiny droplets that are suspended in the vinegar. Egg yolks have molecules called lecithin in them. The lecithin surrounds the oil droplet and thereby places a barrier between all of the oil droplets so they cannot recombine. Make sense? I hope so because here we go!

Mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup canola oil
1 1/4 tsp lemon juice

Step 1. Assemble your ingredients. I put my oil in a squeeze bottle because it is easier to work with. If you don't have one, you can use a measuring cup, you'll just have to be careful.

Step 2. Crack an egg and put the yolk into your mixing bowl. (It doesn't have to be a green bowl. Use your favorite.) You can save and use the white part, just put it in a container with a lid and toss it in the fridge.

Step 3. Whisk your yolk until it starts to lighten in color. This is an important step because it helps strengthen your emulsion.

Step 4. Add vinegar, salt, cayenne, and dry mustard. (The acid in the vinegar helps form the emulsion easier because it prevents the curdling of the egg yolk proteins.)

Step 5. Beat in the seasonings really well.

Step 6. Gradually add the oil (start with drops) while you whisk it into the egg yolk and vinegar. Once you've added about 1/5th of the oil it will start to emulsify and look like this.

Step 7. You can add the drops of oil in a fine stream at this point, but you have to keep whisking quickly to incorporate it. If it starts to get too thick, add a couple of drops of the lemon juice. (You can even add a couple of drops of water to thin it back out.) If it has too much oil, stop adding the oil and whisk faster until it is incorporated.  I didn't get a picture of that point, because I was busy whisking like a mad woman. I added a couple of drops of water to my mayonnaise because it started to stick in my whisk. That is a sign that it is too thick.

Step 8. After you have added all of the oil, add the lemon juice and whisk it together.

The mayonnaise should hold its shape at this point. If it is too thin, whisk more oil into it. If it is too thick for you, add a couple of drops of vinegar, lemon juice, or water. Feel free to taste it. It will be pretty bland because mayonnaise is used as a base for other sauces. If you just want to use it as mayonnaise, feel free to add a little salt, more cayenne, or lemon juice for flavor (Feel free to convince your loved ones that you just made frosting and they get to lick the whisk clean. Ha! What a surprise they'll have! Don't worry, after expecting frosting, no one will want to eat that much mayonnaise.)

If you want to make a fancy mayonnaise, crush garlic with the salt before adding it to the egg yolk. You can even substitute olive oil for part of the canola oil.

You can make tartar sauce by adding chopped dill pickles, onions, and capers. (You'll want to squeeze out all extra liquid before adding it to your prepared mayonnaise.) Finish it with some fresh chopped parsley.

You can also make thousand island dressing, blue cheese dressing, ranch dressing, and fry sauce with this mayonnaise. (Thank you, Utah, for this special french fry sauce. Fries are just too good for regular ketchup. You were right.) If you want any of these recipes, let me know! I'd be happy to share them.