Since moving to Seattle, we've done a lot of things that have made me feel a little like a dirty hippie: we compost all of our food waste (when Rowan can remember it), we recycle all of our recyclables (when Rowan can remember it), and to top if all off we just bought a bunch of "new" stuff at the local Goodwill.
But tonight we made mayo.
While browsing the Internet for solutions to my aloe allergy (which has become an issue, *grrr*), I came upon a recipe for "quick, easy" mayo, which was high on the list of things I wanted to do, because GMO canola is almost unavoidable if you don't want to pay $10 a bottle for 5 oz. of mayo. So while browsing a few other pages about how to make homemade deodorant and shampoo (which I'm totally not going to do by the way), I decided we were going to make said mayo. It seemed really easy. All the recipe called for was egg yolks, olive oil, sugar, salt, ACV, lemon juice and dijon mustard. Basically, stick it all in a cup and stir it up with an immersion blender. It was advertised as "fool-proof", taking no longer than 30 seconds!
Fool proof my ass.
The first attempt was a runny disaster. We basically made eggy salad dressing, which I guess is fine but it tasted far too mayo-y to be good for salad dressing. After attempting the author's "fool-proof" save (and wasting another egg), we tossed it out. I was grumpy and disgruntled. I read the blog comments, and I clearly wasn't the only one who had trouble with this recipe, so I googled it.
Turns out there are a lot of things that people think you need to do in order to make mayo. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Leave the eggs out overnight so that they reach room temperature before adding them to the mix.
- Add each ingredient one at a time, starting with the egg and ending with the oil, very slowly, mixing completely between each step.
- Add everything but the oil in a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Add the oil (all 1 1/2 cups of it) a drop at a time while whisking constantly.
Needless to say, none of these thing seemed quick or easy, and the last one may have required a second set of arms (seriously. A drop at a time), but the woman had made mayo! She had pictures to prove it! In desperation I searched for "easy mayo." I happened upon a video that appeared to have an immersion blender in it as well. This video, in fact.
So, I asked Rowan how many eggs he was willing to sacrifice to my mayo endeavor, and having been given a non-committal shrug, I MADE MAYO.
SEE! I made mayo.
In appearances anyway. The real test would be does it taste like mayo?
In short, the answer is maybe? I don't eat a whole lot of mayo plain, so when I stuck my finger in it to try it it tasted... mayo-y...I guess... It has an unpleasant tang at the end of the taste, and the olive oil we use turns out to taste kind of yucky on its own, but it was mayo!
Rowan suggested that we put it on bread, because both olive oil and mayo are gross alone but better on bread. So we did. ...and then he suggested we add cheese, because why not! So we did!
He bravely took a bite!
He tastes the mayo!
After chewing for a second (all to the rapid fire clicking of my phone's camera) he decided...
He decides!
...it was tasty!
So we both ate cheese sandwiches. And then pulled the remainder of the whole chicken we had in the fridge and made chicken salad because now we have just over a cup and a half of mayo to use in 3ish days...
But that's not the point. The point is I can now make mayo. Whenever I want. As much as I want (we will be halving the recipe next time...) and I can use whatever oil I want. I can fill it with GMO canola, or not, because I'm the one making it....and that's awesome.
