Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise has it's lovers & haters. I was neutral like Switzerland. Lovers are generally divided into Team Hellmans/Best Foods or Team Miracle Whip. Back when I used to purchase commercial mayo I would probably be on the bench for Best Foods, not my go to condiment but useful at times.

A couple of years ago I caught an episode of America's Test Kitchen where Julia was making mayonnaise to go into a potato salad. I thought, "how easy is that?" I had all the ingredients on hand and had just been pondering an egg salad for my morning bagel but had no mayo and I was seriously intrigued by ATK's choice of ingredients using Tabasco & Worchestershire. I subbed Sriracha since I had no Tabasco.

That serendipitous moment propelled the little kitchen to much greater things.

My tweaks to the original recipe continue to be Sriracha only because it'll take me 2 more years to finish that bottle, a squeeze or two of Agave Nectar added at the very end-I like the honey mustard flavors in my finished mayo. I also amp up the Dijon 'cuz I love it. The final steps: add a big pinch of salt & blitz. Taste. Repeat if necessary.

Some tips:

Use a neutral vegetable oil. Olive oil is fine but make sure to taste it first to make sure it's not bitter. My first few attempts at this were foiled by the inexpensive supermarket extra virgin olive oil that I didn't realize was so bitter. It's fine to cook with, but mayonnaise is something like 75% oil-Use something that tastes good on its own.

Use a good quality organic egg if you're freakish about Salmonella. I've made this in the past with cheap supermarket eggs and lived to tell the tale.

Homemade Mayonnaise

adapted from America's Test Kitchen

into your food processor/or mixing bowl:

1 whole large egg

salt & pepper

2 teaspoons lemon juice

dash of Tabasco sauce or Sriracha

dash of Worchestershire Sauce

1/4 teaspoon Dijon-I use a whole teaspoon because I love Dijon-stick with the original measure if you prefer a more neutral mayo. 

Process or madly whisk until it's light yellow.

Sloooowwwwly drizzle in 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil whilst continuing to whisk madly or: see that tiny hole in the middle of the feed tube pusher thingy in your food processor? That's what it's for. Fill that tube with the oil and continue until your measuring cup is empty while the food processor is going.

As soon as the oil is mixed in, taste it. This is where I like to drizzle in some Agave Nectar to give my mayo the honey mustard flavors.

Adjust the taste to your liking by adding pinches of salt, more lemon juice or more hot sauce.

This is great to play around with.