Scratched Mayonnaise

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Everyone should know how to make mayonnaise. Really. Truly. It’s not that difficult, and it’s much tastier than that store-bought glop in a jar. Besides, if you really want to impress someone, serve something like asparagus with homemade aioli (garlic mayo).

In our case, we wanted to scratch up a batch of coleslaw, and the absolute best recipe we know of calls for homemade mayonnaise. So we quickly whipped up a batch. Both the coleslaw recipe and the mayonnaise recipe comes from At the Kitchen Table, The Craft of Cooking at Home by Greg Atkinson.

Scratched Mayonnaise

Servings: 2 cups
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 1 large egg
  • 1 Tbs Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbs white Balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • ~1 1/4 cup light oil such as canola.
  • ~1/4 extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

  • Whisk everything but the oil. In a 1.5 quart bowl, whisk together the mustard, salt, egg, and vinegar.
  • While whisking, drip in 2 to 6 drops of olive oil.
  • Add 10 drops olive oil. While whisking like mad, add a bit more olive oil.
  • Drizzle in the canola oil. Are you whisking? Good. Now slowly drizzle in about a cup of canola oil. Start slowly at first, and gradually increase the rate of flow. NEVER stop whisking while you add the oil.
  • Add more oil. We added about 1/3 cup split evenly between olive and canola oil.
  • Again, drizzle it in while whisking. Now the mayonnaise should really thicken up.

Ingredients discussion:

The reason we call for a white vinegar is so the resulting mayonnaise will be a light yellow color. We didn’t care, so we used regular Balsamic vinegar. Use a very mild-flavored oil; we normally use canola, but we use olive oil to start and finish the mayonnaise. Don’t worry; we’ll explain that in a bit. Pastured or free-range eggs are the way to go.

Procedure in detail:

whisking mayonnaise ingredients
Whisk! Whisk! Whisk! And whisk some more. And this is before we start adding the oil.

Whisk everything but the oil. In a 1.5 quart bowl, whisk together the mustard, salt, egg, and vinegar. Keep whisking. And whisking. And whisking. Arm tired? Yeah, ours, too, but you really want to whisk together these ingredients for about 2 minutes to make sure they’re well mixed. It’ll help the oil emulsify in the next step.

mayonnaise without oil
Before adding the oil, your ingredients should look something like this. Not as dark if you’ve use a white vinegar.

Add 4 drops olive oil. While whisking, drip in 2 to 6 drops of olive oil. Really. Just a few drops. Keep whisking, this is starting the emulsion. What the heck, whisk a bit more.

Add 10 drops olive oil. While whisking like mad, add a bit more olive oil. The reason we use olive oil to start is we have bottles with those neat little pour spouts. It makes it pretty easy to add just a bit of oil. Take a short break. Then whisk.

whisking mayonnaise
The mayonnaise after adding about a cup of oil. The dark color is because we used regular Balsamic vinegar, instead of some white vinegar. It’ll taste great either way.

Drizzle in the canola oil. Are you whisking? Good. Now slowly drizzle in about a cup of canola oil. Start slowly at first, and gradually increase the rate of flow. NEVER stop whisking while you add the oil. Yes, we know your arm feels like it’s about to fall off, but tough it out; it’s worth it. You should notice the mixture begin to thicken. That’s good, you’re almost through. Once you’ve added the cup of oil, take a break, a short one.

Add more oil.  We added about 1/3 cup split evenly between olive and canola oil. Even though our arm burned, and the mayonnaise was pretty thick, we knew it could be a bit thicker, so more oil. Again, drizzle it in while whisking. Now the mayonnaise should really thicken up.

freshly made mayonnaise
Mayonnaise. Made from just a few ingredients and a bit of arm power.

Done. Whew! It might not seem like it was worth it now, but give that mayo a little taste, and, if you’re like us, you’ll change your mind.

We prefer homemade mayo so much that we never buy the glop in a jar. Never. We just scratch up a batch. We’ve read that you can make mayonnaise in a Cuisinart or in a blender and that it’s easier that way. We haven’t tried it yet; some things just taste better when you put in a little more effort. Five stars all the way.

Final note: since mayonnaise includes a raw egg, use it up in a few days.

Worth the trouble?

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