There an old saying: "Just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should." I don't know about you, but as for me -- making mayonnaise from scratch is now officially in that same category. Since I'm really trying to make as many of Julia's "non-gross" recipes as possible, I saw "The Mayonnaise Family" section of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and thought I should try one of these. Never having made my own mayonnaise before, I decided to start off with the recipe for plain mayonnaise, not one of the variations with extra herbs, etc.
As Julia like's to do, she used her introduction to "The Mayonnaise Family" to motivate me to make this Mayonnaise, or should I say "Egg Yolk and Oil Sauce" by hand. According to Julia you can make it using a blender and "it is almost automatic, and takes no skill whatsoever." For just a moment I thought that I'd actually get to do something easy. Hah! That wasn't to be the case, Julia was just setting me up for the next two sentences... "Mayonnaise done by hand...requires familiarity with egg yolks. And again, as with hollandaise, you should be able to make it by hand as part of your general familiarity of the egg yolk." Thanks, Julia. I suppose I've only been barely introduced to my friend the egg yolk and it is about time we got a little more familiar with each other. Besides, something as exotic as "Egg Yolk and Oil Sauce" must be a special treat that's worth some extra effort to produce... Well, wait and see what you think.
I did learn some important points about my friend, the egg yolk. First of all, a large egg yolk will not absorb more than 3/4 cup of oil. Since I'm not much of a risk taker, I chose to heed Julia's advice and limit myself to 1/2 cup of oil per egg yolk until after I've racked up some experience making my own mayonnaise. The second key point is that all of the ingredients used should be at room temperature before starting -- the metal mixing bowl I used was actually warmed in hot water before I started mixing ingredients. Finally, the oil used must be added drop by drop.
First thing I needed to do was separate three eggs. I'm not sure where my mind went but I ended up tossing two egg yolks into the trash. I think it is kind of fun to separate eggs and was having such a great time doing the first egg that I didn't realize until I'd dumped the yolk into the trash can that I'd actually been saving the whites in a bowl the whole time. On my second try I was quickly separating my eggs and white, full of confidence and speed. So fast, as a matter of fact, that on my final transfer of yolk between shell halves...I kind of missed and that yolk joined its buddy down in the trash can. I can report, however, that all subsequent eggs were successfully separated and three yolk were residing in their designated compartments.
Then the real work began. The three eggs were dumped into a metal mixing bowl and beaten for 1-2 minutes until they were thick and sticky. A little lemon juice, salt and dry mustard weed added and the beating began! This wasn't your ordinary beating, this was like a Universal Gym annual membership snuck into one recipe. Once the beating began Julia warned "you must not stop until the sauce has thickened." Who'd have thought I'd be doing this for about 30 minutes (really, not exaggerating!). Especially since Julia explained earlier that, with some practice, I'd be able to make a quart of this stuff in less than 10 minutes.
Apparently I could have added the oil faster than I did. After all of Julia's warnings I was a bit gun shy and added the oil drop by drop verrrrrrrrrrry slowly. It did work out, though, and I ended up seeing the sauce thicken and begin to bulk up a bit as the oil was added. It really did start to thicken up, as promised, and got to the point where I used instruction to add a couple of drops of lemon juice to thin things out if they got too thick. Magic! I have no idea why but a little lemon juice thins things out nicely.
The beating when on forever as I dripped my olive oil in. Drip. Drip. Drip. 22 minutes later I was still dripping in the oil keeping my eyes on, as Julia had coached, the oil and not on the sauce itself. Towards the end I was finally able to add oil by the spoonful and things sped up. Definitely a good arm workout -- now my right arm is approximately double the size of my left arm. Once all of the oil was added and the thickness was where I wanted it, I chose to apply Julia's "anti-curdling insurance" of stirring in two tablespoons of boiling water. I'm not sure of the chemistry involved in this process. Then, just like that, my cooking project for the day was done.
As I started off with, "Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should. The mayonnaise that I had just made tasted like (ready for this?) -- Mayonnaise!! It did have a lovely creamy pale yellow color, very similar to Hollandaise sauce, but it tasted very much like plain old just out of the jar mayonnaise. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I did think there'd be some sort of fanfare with trumpets and confetti as I took my first taste of the homemade mayonnaise. Nope. Nothing. Crickets.
My sous chef, Kathryn, helped me out and made us each a ham and cheese sandwich! Definitely not French but we did need mayonnaise to complete the sandwich. Would I make this again. Well....perhaps if a recipe called for a different cousin in the Mayonnaise family I'd try making it. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking with those jars of mayonnaise I can get at the grocery store. After beating these eggs I'm pretty sure that I'l be able to easily open the jar with my massive bicep helping me out. If you'd like to try some, stop on by -- I have a couple of containers of fresh mayonnaise in the fridge.
Now that my egg yolk friends and I have become a bit more familiar with each other I'm thinking this may be one of those friendships that stays congenial but never turns into a particularly close friendship. We'll smile and wave when we see each other but I don't see us hanging out together on the weekends. Perhaps I'll come across a recipe that uses "Egg Yolk and Oil Sauce" to finish the dish and I'll look up my old friend.
Bon Appetit!
Comments