Homemade Mayo
I have been wanting to make my own mayonnaise for a while, but it's a little daunting. I've had some outstanding failures in the past -- I could get the texture right, but it was freakishly bitter. Turns out that's because I was using a blender and extra virgin olive oil. According to my source (below), the bitter compounds in extra virgin olive oil are very small and usually bound so our tastebuds can't access them. When I used my blender to whip them into a frenzy, that broke apart the molecules and voilá! Bitingly strong (and disgusting) mayonnaise.
This time I found a recipe at Serious Eats that called for a stick blender, and I went out and bought "light tasting olive oil" specifically for the purpose. And it worked! This is (was) delicious.
link to article and video about mayo (recipe link follows the article there).
I made sure everything was at room temperature before starting. Don't know if that makes a difference, but it can't hurt. I set my egg out about 3 hours before I wanted to start.
I also pasteurized a few eggs yesterday in preparation for the experiment, using an insulated "cooler" as a heat bath -- I kept them at between 130˚F and 138˚F for thirty minutes, then bumped it up to 140˚F for another ten. A bit tricky, but it was all in good fun.
I realize that this is more work than most people want to do to be able to make deviled eggs, but it was seriously fun and now that I know what I'm doing, my next batch will go much faster (I'm thinking garlic mayo next time, maybe?).
Homemade Mayo
I have been wanting to make my own mayonnaise for a while, but it's a little daunting. I've had some outstanding failures in the past -- I could get the texture right, but it was freakishly bitter. Turns out that's because I was using a blender and extra virgin olive oil. According to my source (below), the bitter compounds in extra virgin olive oil are very small and usually bound so our tastebuds can't access them. When I used my blender to whip them into a frenzy, that broke apart the molecules and voilá! Bitingly strong (and disgusting) mayonnaise.
This time I found a recipe at Serious Eats that called for a stick blender, and I went out and bought "light tasting olive oil" specifically for the purpose. And it worked! This is (was) delicious.
link to article and video about mayo (recipe link follows the article there).
I made sure everything was at room temperature before starting. Don't know if that makes a difference, but it can't hurt. I set my egg out about 3 hours before I wanted to start.
I also pasteurized a few eggs yesterday in preparation for the experiment, using an insulated "cooler" as a heat bath -- I kept them at between 130˚F and 138˚F for thirty minutes, then bumped it up to 140˚F for another ten. A bit tricky, but it was all in good fun.
I realize that this is more work than most people want to do to be able to make deviled eggs, but it was seriously fun and now that I know what I'm doing, my next batch will go much faster (I'm thinking garlic mayo next time, maybe?).