The Ultimate Mayonnaise Recipe

This A-mayonnaising mayonnaise is a french recipe I discovered back in 2001, and have been enjoying it ever since. It's a delicious, smooth, creamy, garlicy, mayonnaise that you can eat with anything (especially with potatoes. yum). Some people say it's so good they just eat it on its own. And some people thought it was so good they wrote and article in a food magazine all about it.

It could be best summed up by a friend who came over once and asked "you got any more of that garlic dip?", he was shocked to hear that the garlic dip is actually how real mayonnaise tastes. Once you try this you'll not be able stomach the mass produced shop bought kind ever again.

Now that I've waxed lyrical about how goddam good this mayonnaise is, I have some warnings to make for the faint-hearted cooks amongst you:

1. This recipe is French. It uses a raw egg.

2. You'll use a lot of oil. All mayonnaise uses a lot of oil.

If you are still here you are in for a treat: it's a really fun recipe to make, and the process of emulsification is magical. Let me know how it goes :)

You'll need:

• 1 fresh egg yolk. Use the freshest and most organic, class AA egg, as you'll be using it raw.
• approx. a cup of a low flavor oil, like vegetable, corn or rapeseed (called canola in the US)
• approx. 1/4 of a cup a light flavored olive oil.
• 1 small garlic chopped or crushed (add more / less garlic to taste)
• a teaspoon of mustard (any kind, but preferably french)
• a table spoon of a white wine or cider vinegar (or a similar light colored vinegar)

DO NOT MAKE THIS RECIPE IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT USING RAW EGGS. Here is more info about raw eggs.

Put all the ingredients EXCEPT the oil in the blender.

I use a blender. I have done this recipe using a hand whisk too, but it takes for-ev-er and it comes out much more yellow and flatter in consistency.

Before adding the oil (next step) have the blender running on a low speed.

This is the crucial part: it is the magical emulsification process.

I've made mayonnaise 100s of times, and only failed this part of the process once. I was living house of circus performers in the South of France (clowns, trapeze artists, jugglers....you name it, they lived in the this house), and they all wanted to see how mayonnaise was made. So the act of making became a circus show, and with about 12 folk gathered around me and a blender, I broke the egg under the pressure, the egg got stage fright, and did not emulsify. There were lots of sad clown faces and a very runny egg.

Anyway here is how to make mayonnaise without any circus acts:

With the blender continuing to run, slowly and constantly throughout this process, start to add the oil...SLOWLY. Slow is the key word in this step.

You'll see the magic happen almost instantly, and hear the mayonnaise begin to form as is slurps around the sides of the food processor. Keep adding the oil slowly until you have a thick mayonnaise consistency.

The best way to judge the right consistency is to pause adding the oil, stop the blender, and use a spoon to test the texture.

People's tastes differ on how thick they like their mayonnaise -you can leave it a bit runny or you can go much thicker, just add more or less oil. And if you add too much oil, it's OK too, as you can add a small amount of water to thin it back down to your preference.

This short video shows the kind consistency you are looking for.

Have a taste, you may need to add more vinegar to taste. And then that is it. Spatula out the mayonnaise into a jar and store it in the fridge. It keeps for about a week, if you can manage to make it lasts that long....yuuummmmmm.

A few last words on olive oil:

You'll notice I only use a small amount of olive oil. I use it as it is to add some depth to the flavor, but I don't add too much (1/4 of the total oil max) or it gives a bitter taste to the mayo, and it is horrible.

The only type of vinegar (that I know of) that neutralizes the bitterness of the olive oil is from the south of Spain -called Jerez vinegar. A Spanish friend shared her family recipe with me a couple of years ago, and I've tried it, and it works! With Jerez vinegar (instead of white wine or cider) you do not taste any of the bitterness from the oil. The only problem is that Jerez vinegar is not easy to get hold of outside of Spain, and it is not cheap either, which is why I use a white wine vinegar, and only a small amount of olive oil.

Anyway, let me know how this goes for you :)