Mayonnaise

[paquerette]

This is from Nourishing Traditions. I haven't tried it yet.

Simple Mayonnaise
Makes 1 1/2 cups
1 whole egg, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 tsp Dijon-type mustard
1 1/2 tbsp whey, optional
3/4 - 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller-pressed sunflower oil or a combination
generous pinch sea salt

In your food processor, place egg, egg yolk, mustard, salt and lemon juice and optional whey. Process until well blended, about 30 seconds. Using the attachment that allows you to add liquids drop by drop, add oil with the motor running. Taste and check seasoning. You may want to add more salt and lemon juice. If you have added whey, let the mayo sit at room temperature, well covered, for 7 hours before refrigerating. With whey added mayo will keep for several months and will become firmer with time. Without whey, mayo will keep for about 2 weeks.

[paquerette]

additions to the mayonnaise:

Herbed Mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup fresh chopped herbs

I'm pretty sure we could have figured this one out on our own.

Spiced Mayonnaise
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp raw honey
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup piima cream or creme fraiche (these are cultured dairy products for which there are recipes in the book, use sour cream if you can't get them. you need piima powder to get them started)

Saute onion in olive oil. Add spices and cook gently. Add tomato paste and chicken stock. Blend well. Bring to a boil and allow the liquid to reduce to about 1/2 cup. Strain into a bowl. Let cool and whisk in honey until well blended. Blend in salt, mayo, and cultured cream. The final sauce should be the consistency of thick cream.

Curried Mayonnaise

1 cup mayo
1/2 cup piima cream or creme fraiche
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp raw vinegar
3 tbsp curry powder

Blend all ingredients with a whisk. Use in curried chicken salad.

There's also creole mayonnaise, green gelatin mayonnaise, sour cream sauce, tartar sauce, creamy dill sauce, egg mustard sauce. Let me know if any of them sound interesting!

[Pam]

It sounds good, but there's so much oil! An egg or two I wouldn't miss, but we don't grow olives here! It's an eye-opener to see how much fat is in this stuff though. I wonder if sunflower oil is any good.

[paquerette]

Fat has really gotten a bad rap lately. We do need to consume lots of fats, especially animal fats, but plant fats too. I hear you about the olive oil though. It kills me what I have to pay for decent oils. And there is such a huge price difference between the nasty oils and the good stuff that it's tempting.

I do use sunflower a lot and it doesn't have much taste. I think that's good with something like mayo where you want the spices to carry the flavor.

How far do you think 1 1/2 cups mayo will get you? I think I usually buy the quarts and they last me a month or more, and that's almost half that much. Of course if I make salads that's a lot more.

[Pam]

Well, I've been using olive oil and butter exclusively for several years but I am starting to mind the taste of the olive oil. I bought canola last year to use in earwig traps and then had some left, so I started using it more and more. It's so cheap, but I don't like using an engineerd plant. Our mayo is 1.5 litres, which is 6 cups (is that a quart) and it lasts probably a month or two.

I think sunflower sounds better than canola and cheaper and tastier than olive oil. It doesn't sound like I'd save any money making mayo, since the jar I buy is $4-$5,and I'd need about 4 cups of oil to make that amount... well using olive oil would be expensive! I wish I could use more egg.

I really do want to try the recipe, just have to decide on an oil...

[Pam]

Oh,and my processor doesn't have a dropper. How else could I add the oil? Just slowly?

Thanks for all these mayo tips!

[reborin]

3 Tbs isn't that much - try using a safflower oil. It's not terribly expensive, has a very light taste, and isn't (yet) engineered.

[paquerette]

I made some! I didn't like how it came out at first, but I liked it after it refridgerated overnight. The olive oil was actually a bit much. Half and half with something mild like sunflower or safflower might be good. It also needed more egg yolk and mustard I think. And I only got about a cup out of it, but maybe I needed to whip it longer. It wasn't very fluffy.

Food processor, mine has the lid that you can take the plug out of the top and there's a little hole that you can drop things in. It splatters a little but not too bad. It seems like it would work in a blender, too.

I'm glad I did it but I don't know that I would want to do it all the time! I'm just not very happy with what I can buy in the stores here. But I don't use much anyway.

[Pam]

I finally got to try this out! I was making a sandwich for lunch just now, and D had finished the mayo. Oliver was (and is) still sleeping, so I decided to go for it. I thought I'd try it in the hand-helded blender, and other than over heating its poor little $8 motor, it went well. With a steady hand, I slowly dribbled oil in it. I used a teensy bit of mustard power and apple cider vinegar in place of dijon and lemon juice. It's still scary to see what mayo is made of, how much is fat. I mean, I spread it pretty generously on things, where I'd never think of spreading that much butter. But really, it's all fat. I'm wondering about enriching it with flax oil some time. Even if you used a couple tablespoons of flax oil along with a cup of sunflower oil...