Fast Fridays: Tips for Making Mayonnaise

As a kid, I never liked mayonnaise on my sandwiches. I didn’t like the weird creamy texture of the stuff from the glass jars. Because of that, I never keep mayo in the house, even though as an adult, I find that there are lots of good uses for mayo.

For instance, recently, I realized that I was in the mood for an old fashioned potato salad, which meant that I needed mayo. I pulled out Alton Brown’s basic mayo recipe (I love the classic nature of Alton’s recipes) and went to work. The first time I made mayo, it was a big success–the emulsification was just as they describe in all the mayo recipes. The second time, alas, it did not work as well. They are right that you should only start with a teeny bit of oil at a time, but I will say that “only a few drops at a time” is a little extreme. Beat your egg yolk really really well, drizzle a teeny bit of oil, beat really really well, drizzle a teeny bit of oil, repeat a few times…then you can start drizzling a little more each time. I like adding lemon juice, a pinch of sugar, and a few pinches of salt for a basic mayo. Add spices and even a little chili paste for a great flavored mayo–but now I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll come back to that next week.