Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Heavenly Humbling Homemade Olive Oil Mayo

Is it just me or do you sometimes get the feeling the angels are laughing at you?
"Silly human"
Last year I made my very first batch of Olive Oil Mayonnaise and planned on blogging about how simple and easy the recipe is. It's so easy and so good, in fact, that some restaurants make their mayonnaise in-house and you know how busy a restaurant kitchen is. It really is that simple and quick. In theory, anyway. That blog post never materialized. All I managed was this. (I was in a bit of a mood.) The mayonnaise was a disaster. Turns out I'd done everything right and still had a mess of inedible gloop in the end. Life's like that. It's just a little reminder that no matter what I think, I'm not in charge of things.

Since I don't like those little reminders, I don't usually take them lying down. I guess it's a holdover from my unrepentant heathen days that I hold onto the illusion that if I can plan things out to the last detail, everything will be fine. God knows better. Let's just say that He tosses me friendly and frequent reminders of who He is when I start to puff up with ignorant importance. This was one of those reminders. After the failure, I hunted around to find out what went wrong. As it turns out, olive oil can not be whipped with a metal utensil without sometimes developing a flat metallic taste. Sometimes. (?)(!)(...) I tried it with a wooden spoon and it turned out well. Then I tried it with plastic. Fine again. Then I tried it again with the metal and that was fine, too. Then I ran out of eggs. So I had to accept that sometimes using metal on mayo would make a mess and sometimes it wouldn't. Oh fine, then. 

So, let's get that straight before you start: use a metal whisk at your own risk. No matter what it tastes like, the mayo will turn out a bright yellow due to the egg yolks. If you find the idea of yellow mayo hard to stomach, I'm sure you could use only egg whites, but you may need to add an extra egg or two, maybe three. Let me know if you fiddle with this and how it turned out. I don't want to be the only lonely silly human around the place.


Enjoy!
Olive Oil Mayonnaise (Revised)

1 egg white, room temperature (the fresher the better)
1 Tbs vinegar or lemon juice
1 cup olive oil (have 1/4 cup ready in reserve)
salt to taste (try starting with 1/4 tsp)

Whip yolk, salt, and vinegar, and slowly add half of your oil. Then whip in remaining oil. It will begin to pull away from the bowl when it is thick enough. If too thick, add water by the drop. 



Use in the same way you always use mayonnaise. 


8 comments:

  1. This helped me more than you could know, and I'm not talking about the mayo either. :-) But the mayo recipe is also much appreciated! ;-) Love you!

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  2. What an easy recipe. I'll let you know how it turns out! Thank you so much. I'm glad I found your blog.

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  3. I'm glad you both are willing to give it a go. Cooking has a tendency to humble me.

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  4. Ok made it twice and it's a watery mess. Not thickening. All ingredients as recipe? How long do you whip?

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  5. Oh no! I'll have an answer for you in a quick one!

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  6. Ditching the water...Oh, guacamole! It's a mess! Way too much liquid even in the vinegar department!

    Thank you, Coffeemom. I'm fixing it right now. Good thing I have a ton of eggs at the moment (Easter)...

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  7. It's fixed! I'm very embarrassed, but I am pretty used to that.

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  8. This is very helpful a mayo with less fat.

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