Instead of buying store-bought mayos, make your own. From the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child. Photo by Diana Strizhigotskaya | Fotolia.

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August 2007

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Condiments

Julia Child’s Mayonnaise Recipe

Homemade Mayonnaise ~ Much Tastier Than From The Jar!

Plus Easy An Blender Mayonnaise Recipe

There’s nothing more delicious than homemade mayonnaise: Any resemblance to commercial mayonnaise is highly unlikely. When seeking the perfect recipe, whether as a sauce or a blending agent, we turned to the source for all classic instruction in french cooking: Ms. Julia Child. You can find a full education in mayonnaise-making in Volume 1 of Mastering The Art Of French Cooking (co-written with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck).

Mayonnaise can be hand-beaten (a.k.a. whisked, the original way), made with an electric beater or in an electric blender. Blender mayonnaise uses a whole egg rather than egg yolks, and as Julia says, “...it is almost automatic, and no culinary skill whatsoever enters into its preparation.” Needless to say, she does not provide a recipe! “Mayonnaise made by hand or with an electric beater requires familiarity with egg yolks,” she admonishes.“It is certainly far from difficult once you understand the process, and after you have done it a few times, you should easily and confidently be able to whop together a quart of sauce in less than ten minutes.” Here are two recipes for handmade mayonnaise, although we urge you to purchase the book to see the many riffs on mayonnaise. You’ll find out where all those fancy French sauces got their names—and what’s in them!

Recipes provided are from Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, Volume 1.

• Hand-Beaten Mayonnaise ~ Recipe
• Green Mayonnaise ~ Recipe
• Tips For Making Mayonnaise
• Blender Mayonnaise ~ Recipe

Hand-Beaten Mayonnaise

What Julia called hand-beaten mayonnaise, we’d call homemade mayonnaise today—as opposed to that which is commercially prepared, using industrial mixers.

The following directions are for a hand-beaten sauce (using a wire whisk). For electric beaters, use the large bowl and the “moderately fast” speed for whipping cream. Continually push the sauce into the beater blades with a rubber scraper.

Ingredients

• Round-bottomed, 2½ to 3-quart glazed pottery, glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. Set it in a heavy casserole or saucepan to keep it from slipping.
• 3 egg yolks
• Large wire whisk
• 1 tablespoon wine vinegar or lemon juice (more drops as needed)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon dry or prepared mustard
• 1½ to 2¼ cups of olive oil, salad oil or a mixture of each. If the oil is cold, heat it to tepid; and if you are a novice, use the minimum amount
• 2 tablespoons boiling water

Directions

1. Warm the bowl in hot water; dry it. Add the egg yolks and beat for 1 to 2 minutes until they are thick and sticky.
2. Add the vinegar or lemon juice, salt and mustard. Beat for 30 seconds more.
3. The egg yolks are now ready to receive the oil. While it goes in, drop by drop, you must not stop beating until the sauce has thickened. A speed of 2 strokes per second is fast enough. You can switch hands or switch directions, as long as you beat constantly.
4. Add the drops of oil with a teaspoon, or rest the lip of the bottle on the edge of the bowl. Keep your eye on the oil rather than on the sauce. Stop pouring and continue beating every 10 seconds or so, to be sure the egg yolks are absorbing the oil.
5. After 1/3 to 1/2 cup of oil has been incorporated, the sauce will thicken into a very heavy cream and the crisis of potential curdling is over. The beating arm may rest a moment. Then, beat in the remaining oil by 1 to 2 tablespoon dollops, blending it thoroughly after each addition.
6. When the sauce becomes too thick and stiff, beat in drops of vinegar or lemon juice to thin it out. Then continue with the oil.
7. Beat the boiling water into the sauce. This is an anti-curdling insurance. Season to taste.
8. If the sauce is not used immediately, scrape it into a small bowl and cover it tightly so a skin will not form on its surface.

Green Mayonnaise

Ingredients

• 8 to 10 spinach leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped shallots or green onions
• ¼ cup watercress leaves
• ¼ cup parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon or ½ teaspoon dried tarragon
• 2 tablespoons fresh chervil (optional)
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the spinach and shallots or onions, and boil for 2 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and boil 1 minute more.
2. Strain, run cold water over the herbs and pat dry with a towel. Stir the herbs into the finished mayonnaise.

Variations

• Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of fresh, minced green herbs such as tarragon, basil, chervil, chives, parsley or oregano.
• Add 2 tablespoons each of minced anchovies, capers and sour pickles to ½ cup softened butter or cream cheese. Beat the mixture, a tablespoon at a time, into the green mayonnaise.

Tips For Making Mayonnaise

Julia Child’s tips for homemade mayonnaise:

• Room Temperature: Have all ingredients at room temperature. If they aren’t, warm the mixing bowl in hot water to take the chill off the egg yolks; heat the oil to tepid if it is cold.
• Egg Yolks: Always beat the yolks for a minute or two before adding anything to them. When they are thick and sticky, they are ready to absorb the oil.
• Adding The Oil: The oil must be added very slowly at first, in droplets, until the emulsion process begins and the sauce thickens into a heavy cream. Then, the oil may be incorporated more rapidly.
• Proportions: The maximum amount of oil one large egg yolk can absorb is six ounces, or ¾ cup. When this maximum is exceeded, the binding properties of the egg yolks break down, and the sauce thins out or curdles. If you have never made mayonnaise before, it is safest not to exceed ½ cup of oil per egg yolk. Here is a table giving proportions for varying amounts of sauce:

Fanny Farmer’s Whole-Egg Mayonnaise (Blender Mayonnaise)

This easy blender mayonnaise recipe also can be made with electric beaters.

Ingredients 1 egg ½ teaspoon dry mustard ½ teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar 1½ cups olive or other oil Directions Put the egg, seasonings and ¼ cup oil in the blender and whirl until well mixed (20 to 30 seconds). Pour in the rest of the oil in a steady stream. Stop as soon as the emulsion is smoothly blended.

This recipe is from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

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