Mayo Clinic

I said I was going to start making my own mayonnaise, & I'm a man of my word:




Please note the absurdly yellow color. It isn't from the smidgen of mustard, my friends. That's the hue of Larry Schultz's awesome organic eggs, in all their Technicolor glory.

I thought it might be nice to describe the process, in case anyone else wanted to add (somewhat) local mayo to their arsenal. I don't tend to write down what I'm doing as I cook, but here's a basic recipe that can be tweaked to suit one's individual taste:

Basic Fresh Mayonnaise:

3 Schultz organic egg yolks (that's the local part)
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard, or to taste
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon white pepper, or to taste
Extra Virgin olive oil, or preferred high-quality oil (I'm not sure how much I ended up using, honestly)

Makes about 1/2 cup.

Naturally, many different ingredients can be used to make the mayonnaise more uniquely suited to it's intended use, from capers to chipotle peppers.

After separating the yolks from the whites, place them in a small food processor bowl, along with all the ingredients except the olive oil. Of course the truly hardcore are welcome to whisk this up by hand, I suppose, & if handled properly, a good blender would also do the trick. Pulse the processor blade in short bursts until the ingredients are smoothly combined. Then, pulsing in longer bursts at full speed (if possible- mine doesn't allow this function), add the oil in the thinnest possible trickle. Whenever the blades are stopped, the oil should not be added further until motion is resumed.

Something to watch out for while doing all this is that some food processors accumulate heat either from the friction of the blades in the bowl or from the motor. This can sometimes actually cook the egg yolks, causing them to clump up & ruin the mayo. This is the reason I suggest pulsing the blades instead of running them full-out the whole time.

After a short time, the emulsion will start thickening & smacking wetly against the side of the bowl. Continue running the processor & adding more oil until the desired thickness is reached.

After the mayonnaise is done, use whatever you can, right away. This isn't the store bought pasteurized stuff, after all, & even though it will keep for a reasonable amount of time if it's well covered & refrigerated, homemade mayo is basically just raw egg yolks & oil.

Yeah, at the end of the day I know it's not much more local than any other mayonnaise, but it makes me feel better. Also, it's just gorgeous to look at.


-nano out.