Mad, Beautiful Ideas
Whole Food Adventures: Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is a condiment most people have simply relegated to the nearly tasteless goo that they spread on their sandwiches. However, it doesn’t need to be this way. Homemade Mayonnaise can taste absolutely amazing, and is ridiculously easy to make.

You do need to be careful, however. While Mayonnaise can be made with either a food processor or blender, or a whisk, the recipes used for both methods differ slightly, but very importantly. I made the error of working a food processor recipe with a whisk, and while I’ve got a mayonnaise that is fantastic in Tuna, it’s not so great for normal sandwiches.

The recipe is simple. Take 1 full egg, and one egg yolk, add a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and a tea spoon of mustard (preferably a Dijon-style) to your food processor or blender and blend them for just a moment to build a real simple emulsion. Then, slowly add 3/4 cup of good vegetable oil, olive oil or safflower please, while blending. The emulsion will continue to thicken, and should turn a nice white color.

Don’t do the blending at a very high speed, as your likely to over whip the mayonnaise, which can result in separation, which is not tasty. Proportions are important in this recipe, so please do take measurements, and don’t just guess, you will likely end up disappointed. If you want your mayonnaise to last a while, you can add a tablespoon of whey, which should allow you to refrigerate your mayo for months, useful if you make a lot at once.

As for last weeks Kombucha, our black tea kombucha was a bit tart and nicely carbonated. Really quite tasty. We’ve already started a half-gallon batch, and have a secondary zoogleal mat sitting in the fridge, though I don’t know what we’re going to do with it yet.