Mayonnaise: Oil, Egg and a Drop of Magic

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Homemade mayonnaise with sriracha sauce. By MELISSA CLARK Published: May 22, 2012 “DON’T you know the mayonnaise trick?”

My friend Dori and I were standing in front of Empire Mayonnaise in Brooklyn, the city’s first and only artisanal mayonnaise shop, ogling its wares: flavors like lime pickle and, of course, bacon, when she asked me that. If there was a trick for making mayonnaise, I certainly did not know it. And what a trick — a potential game-changer, the kind that turns homemade mayo from a special-occasion recipe into an everyday endeavor, ending our dependence on subpar, corn-syrup-filled commercial stuff. Because here’s the thing about mayo: while it’s easy to buy high-end mustard and ketchup, good-quality commercial mayonnaise is a rare thing indeed. If you want really delicious mayo, you have no choice but to make it yourself. Despite a deep and committed love of mayo, my success rate for making it had been about 50 percent. To make mayonnaise, you need to slowly beat oil into egg until an emulsion forms — that is, the oil molecules are uniformly dispersed in the egg and then hold there. Whether I used a food processor, blender or whisk, my mayonnaise often broke: the oil and egg separated, heartbreakingly deflating from a thick and attractive froth into a thin and oily puddle. Adding a teaspoon of water to the yolks before dripping in the oil helps create a stronger and more stable emulsion, Dori said. She picked up the secret in culinary school years ago, and her mayonnaises haven’t collapsed since. The first time I tried it, I achieved the lightest, most ethereal mayonnaise I’d ever made. It tasted deeply of the good olive oil I used, seasoned with lemon and mustard. We ate it with roasted asparagus, dunking the spears two, three and four times into the tasty sauce until we swabbed the bowl clean. The next day I whisked together another batch, stirring in minced anchovies at the end. It made some of the finest egg salad I’d ever had. Heady with success and inspired by the flavors on offer at Empire, I knew a mayonnaise spree was in the making. Dancing in my head were visions of sweet potato salad tossed with pungent lime pickle mayonnaise, moist pieces of swordfish slathered with garlicky aioli, and hot biscuits spread with bacon mayonnaise and topped with slices of ripe tomato. Why did a teaspoon of water make such a difference? And why hadn’t anyone told me this before? The only cookbook I knew of that mentioned adding water to the yolk before whipping was published by the Culinary Institute of America, and so I called there and spoke with Tucker Bunch, a chef and instructor. “A little water physically broadens the space between fat droplets, helping them stay separate,” Mr. Bunch said. If the oil droplets don’t stay distinct from one another and evenly dispersed in the oil, the mayonnaise will break. He explained that while you need not add water for an emulsion to form, just a teaspoon increases the odds that it will. Lemon juice and vinegar accomplish the same thing, but if you add too much you run the risk of ending up with mayo that is too tart. A dollop of mustard can help create and hold an emulsion, too, which, beyond flavor, is why many mayonnaise recipes call for it. Adding water also heightens the fluffy factor. “Without any added water, mayonnaise can be like petroleum jelly,” Mr. Bunch said. “Water gives you that nice, light texture.” Another reason to add water is that it dilutes the yolk and opens up the complex matrix of lecithin and proteins it contains, said Richard D. Ludescher, the dean of academic programs at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. The lecithin binds the oil droplets and the water in the yolk; that’s the essence of a mayonnaise emulsion. As long as they are bound together, the emulsion is stable. When you’re using a blender or food processor, a little cold water can keep everything from overheating as it whirls — another frequent emulsion buster. To really bolster your chances of creating and holding an emulsion, use a whisk. Although mayonnaise can come together more easily in a food processor, Mr. Bunch said, it is prone to breaking. Overbeating, along with overheating, can cause the molecules to come unglued. Click Here!