TexasMadness
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Mayonnaise!
Well, I have all these eggs and I figured that I might as well start finding new ways to use them up. So we decided to make mayonnaise this weekend. I can very clearly remember the first time I was in Europe and had REAL mayonnaise – not that weird bright white stuff you get in a jar in the US. Real homemade mayonnaise is absolute heaven. Thus began the fun.
I looked for a very simple recipe online. I was surprised at how much the ones I found differed. I generally default to Martha Stewart when it comes to basic recipes but hers just didn’t sound right. It called for 1 egg and 1½ cups of oil. Didn’t sound like enough egg. The next one I found suggested 2 eggs for 1 cup of oil. That sounded better. So off I went to the kitchen.
I was chatting with Chad and not really paying attention to what I was doing – I cracked two eggs into my Vitamix. It’s the old kind that has a stainless steel vessel on top so you can’t see what’s in it. I turned the blender on and was immediately met with the most wretched odor! One of the eggs was bad and I hadn’t even noticed. Ugh. I’ve noticed a few cracked shells lately and one must have slipped in to the fridge unnoticed and it went bad.
After much clean up, we tried again. I went to the coop and got REALLY fresh eggs just to be sure! I carefully cracked each egg into a bowl before putting it in the blender. Both were good. I blended them with a teaspoon of salt for a few seconds and then slowly started adding the oil. The recipe said that you should put the blender on the slowest setting. The Vitamix’s slowest setting is about as fast as most other blender’s fastest setting! I worried. At last, the blending was done – and remember I couldn’t see what was going on the whole time! The recipe had warned that blenders make really stiff mayonnaise and that a hand mixer was far better. I don’t have a hand mixer.
So I cautiously took the top off, not really sure what to expect. It was sooo runny! I blended a bit longer and came up with a nice textured mayonnaise-looking substance. Couldn’t wait to try it! I put it in a bowl and added a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and got ready for my first taste of my very own homemade mayonnaise….and it was AWFUL! What?!?!
I did a little more research online and it turns out I used the worst oil possible – extra virgin olive oil. The strong flavor of the oil was overpowering! However, the batch was saved with the addition of mustard and herbs. It’s still not the best mayonnaise I’ve ever had, but it was edible. Next time I will certainly remember to not use my (expensive) extra virgin olive oil!
So we tried another batch the next night. We used the same basic recipe but with grape seed oil. Grape seed oil is known to be rather flavorless. This batch turned out somewhat better, but not great. And it was still runny.
We went to the store and bought soybean oil and peanut oil. We'll try them out sometime soon. And I think I’ll try just using the yolks instead of the whole eggs. I bet it will be thicker and richer. I’ll let you know how it turns out! Or, does anyone have any tried and true recipes?!?!
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2/24/2008, 10:35 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: Mayonnaise!
Hmm. I never tried to make mayonnaise myself, all I know is that indeed it uses eggs and oils. Personally, I'd try sunflowerseed oil or something similar, but that's just because it's rather common here.
I'd be very interested in how your experiments turn out!
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2/25/2008, 7:19 am
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Saijen SilverWolf
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Re: Mayonnaise!
I've never made mayo, but I'll be interested to see how you fair with the different oils. And which one works the best for the best flavor.
I've often wondered about making my own mayonnaise, but since I don't have a ready stash of eggs, it would get a bit too expensive for me.
Hope you get your recipe figured out
--- Blessed Be,
~*~ Saijen ~*~
~~*~~ .~~*~~
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2/25/2008, 7:58 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Mayonnaise!
Darn! I was hoping someone would have a ready answer for me! But it's fun to experiment and the eggs and are cheap...the oil, on the other hand, varies in price - but at least I know not to use the most expensive kinds!
Looks like I've got some work cut out for me. We still have some of the grape seed oil batch so it might be a week or more before I try again. We don't eat that much mayo, but you can only keep homemade for about a week. After this stuff is gone (or thrown out if it goes bad), I'll wait until we need some sandwiches and whip up another batch!
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2/25/2008, 8:28 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Mayonnaise!
I think we finally hit on a decent recipe. Chad is working night shift right now and I forgot that he was on last night so dinner wasn't quite ready early enough. The whole evening was a bit rushed and we are both stressed out right now since we typically see each other for about 30 minutes a day while he's on this schedule.
While I was racing to finish dinner to pack it up for him to take, he was making a sandwich for later on in the shift. He had forgotten that we had no mayo. Instead of the usual "oh, we have no mayo" reaction, he went into "WHAT?!? There's no MAYO!!!" mode. Well, that sent me into a frenzy to make some. I grabbed the same ingredients from the last recipe but tried soybean oil this time and only the egg yolk. Well, it came out complete liquid. I frantically started adding things to make it "work". Nothing helped until I dumped another egg in the mix. It came out perfect! Now, if I could only remember exactly what I put in there...
Here's the gist of it:
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup soybean oil ("vegetable oil")
pinch of salt
1 tsp dijon mustard
pinch of dill
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
And probably a few other things too! He did make it to work on time and called me later to apologize about freaking out over a mayonnaise shortage!
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2/29/2008, 9:07 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: Mayonnaise!
Well, that means two good things came out of a stressful situation:
- great mayonaise and
- a lovely phone call.
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3/1/2008, 7:49 am
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Firlefanz
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Re: Mayonnaise!
I remembered this topic when I ran accross a charming acticle about mayo just now:
Magic in the kitchen: instant mayo
The tale comes complete with the recipe at the end.
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4/27/2008, 11:00 am
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TexasMadness
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Re: Mayonnaise!
Cool! Thanks - we still haven't settled on a 'perfect' recipe yet. And we never seem to use it all up before it goes bad - even if we only make a 'one-egg' recipe (which is about a half cup of mayo). My fiance broke down last week and bought a jar for sandwiches! But I'm sure if we need a bunch (for potato salad or something), we'll make our own. I like the homemade stuff so much better!
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4/28/2008, 6:42 pm
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lavender wings
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Re: Mayonnaise!
That sounds interesting I am going to have to try that. We go through mayo like its going out of style.
--- ~ *I Believe*~
~@ lavender wings @~
*~*~*~*~*~*
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6/9/2008, 4:33 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Mayonnaise!
Lavender, I bet making your own mayo would be good for you. We don't use it that often so even if we only make 1/2 cup of it, we usually end up throwing out the last bit of it since it only lasts a few days in the fridge. But if you use 1/2 cup in 3 days, then I say go for it!
Now we are only making it if we make something like waldorf salad or potato salad where we are going to use it all at once. But during the summer, I usually eat more sandwiches so maybe we'll start keeping it in the fridge again. It's soooo good!
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6/9/2008, 5:00 pm
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