Easy Mayonnaise

What to do with all those eggs?

Easy Mayonnaise

My favourite mayonnaise will have to be the Japanese Kewpie brand. It's thick and creamy. Other supermarket brands don't come close to it. Homemade mayonnaise is just as good, especially with fresh eggs and you can adjust the consistency of it to have it thicker or thinner. Fresh, free range eggs from your garden will give your mayonnaise a brighter yellow tint in comparison to commercial mayonnaise. I add in mustard for some flavour, but you can add other spices. If the other spices are solid and don't mix well, make sure you add them in at the END of the process. Many people have had trouble making mayonnaise, where the oil would not emulsify and remain a watery mess. Well here is a foolproof way of making mayonnaise, I have yet to have had any problems with it. Bear in mind you have to be prepared to stand in front of a bowl with a whisk for about an hour.

So here are the ingredients that I use

1 egg yolk

200-250ml oil (I use rice bran oil, but you can use any non-strong flavoured oil)

1tsp mustard (you can omit this if you wish, but it does give it a nice flavour)

Apple cider vinegar to taste/texture

Salt to taste

Lemon juice (optional, again to taste)

I use a stick mixer with a balloon whisk. If you have a stand mixer, that would be best as your arm gets really tired holding the whisk up. I also recommend that you put your oil into a squirty bottle as this allows you to regulate the amount of oil you add.

Use a high sided but small bowl and add your yolk and mustard (if using) and whisk together

Now with the whisk still going, add about 1 tsp of oil in a thin stream. Once that amount has been added, move your whisk around to make sure that you have incorporated all the oil. There should be no oil sitting on top of the yolk mixture.  Keep doing this about a teaspoon at a time and moving the whisk around in between. The mixture should remain thick looking with no oil sitting on top.

This is how thick it should look when about 2-3 tablespoons has been added. You can start adding the oil at a faster rate at this stage. Just make sure that it all gets incorporated.

The mixture will get thicker the more oil you add. So when about half of the oil has been added, it should look like this

To thin out the mixture, add in a splash of vinegar and whisk. The mixture should soften. The vinegar also helps as a preserving agent and gives the mayonnaise a lovely tang.

Add more oil and keep whisking.At this stage your arms will be tired, the hand whisk is hot to the touch and the bowl has probably spun across the bench when both hands were occupied with the whisk and oil bottle. :)

Keep adding the oil and thinning out with the vinegar. Give it a taste and keep up with the oil and vinegar until you get the consistency and taste that you want. You don't have to use up all the oil. Whisk in your salt and/or lemon juice to taste.

I like to whisk it up to this consistency, but it does thicken up slightly in the fridge

Store it in a sterilised jar in the fridge. It will only keep for up to a week, so small batches are better. If you want to keep it longer, you will have to add in more vinegar, but that will make it more runny.

Other flavours to add in:

Teaspoon of lemon/lime zest

Shredded kaffir lime leaves <--yum! you have to shred them very finely though :(

Grated pepper

A diced up chilli?

Basically once the base is made, you can add in anything you like!
Why don't you give it a try? It is not that difficult and you get a bonus of an arm workout too! Woo!

If you make a big batch (this recipe doubles easily) and close to a week later you still have a lot of mayonnaise left, don't throw it out yet! You can use it in place of a cooking oil.  When sauteing vegetables, add some mayonnaise instead of oil to the pan. The mayonnaise dissolves easily and coats the ingredients nicely.

Don't believe me? I saw this on an advert for Kewpie mayonnaise when I was over in Japan. When I got home, I tried it with some stir fried broccoli. The result...well better than just using plain oil and you are not wasting the mayonnaise right?

Once you have had fresh mayonnaise, you can't go back :)