What did the mayonnaise say when the refrigerator was opened?
“Close the door, I’m dressing!”
~ Unknown ~
Okay sorry about that! I couldn’t resist. We are on the eve of a 21-day lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. Life is weird, to say the least! Social Distancing and staying home have made it very clear that my family and I shop way too much. Now we are trying to stay home and I honestly feel deprived of my shopping fix. The supermarkets are not even being closed down, but we want to stay out of public places, so we are reducing our shopping trips to a minimum. That is how I came to use this recipe for two-minute mayonnaise again. We forgot to get mayonnaise during our weekly shop and we can’t just go out to get more, so home-made it is!
The science of food
I came across this recipe from J. Kenji López-Alt a few years ago. I am not good at making mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce from scratch. I think I am too impatient. So as J. Kenji López-Alt describes it on his website, this is a real I-can’t-believe-I-just-saw-that-happen moment. It literally takes longer to put the ingredients in the jar than to make the mayonnaise! And it’s all thanks to some simple science principles that López-Alt applies to cooking. Do yourself a favour and look at some of his recipes and YouTube videos. The mayonnaise recipe and method is only one of many bright ideas from a guy whose father is a geneticist and immunologist, and whose maternal grandfather was a chemist.
Seeing is believing
I am not going to say much about the method behind making this two-minute mayonnaise. The best is to watch his video and see for yourself. It works extremely well – I’ve tried it often. And it’s so quick you can start making this mayo when someone else starts slicing bread for sandwiches and you’ll be done at the same time! This is, of course, home-made mayonnaise and does not taste like the stuff from the shop. It tastes a hundred times better!
All that’s left for me to say is: if you forgot to get tomato sauce, I’ve got a recipe for that too!
Two-Minute Mayonnaise
Equipment
- Immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 egg (no need to separate and only use the yolk)
- 1 t dijon mustard (I use dijon or wholegrain)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup neutral oil (I use Canola)
- Pinch of salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a jar that will snugly fit the head of the immersion blender, add the egg, mustard, lemon juice, oil and salt & pepper.
- Lower the head of the blender into the jar until it touches the bottom. Start the blender and let the egg, mustard and oil emulsify before moving the blender.
- Once an emulsion has formed, move the blender up and down slowly to incorporate all the ingredients.
Notes
- The recipe calls for fresh lemon juice which is definitely the best to use, but I have used fresh lime juice as well as bottled lemon juice successfully.
- As Kenji mentions, you can add crushed garlic to taste when adding the ingredients to make garlic mayo.
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