Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil droplets suspended in a base compound of egg yolk, lemon juice and/or vinegar, water and often mustard, which provides both flavor and stabilizing particles and carbohydrates. It’s the sauce most tightly packed with oil droplets – as much as 80% of its volume by oil- and is usually dense and too stiff to pour. It can be thinned and flavored with various water-based liquids, including purees and stocks, or it can enrich such liquids the way cream does; it can also be aerated with the addition of whipped cream or egg whites. As a room temperature preparation, mayonnaise is generally served with cold dishes of various sorts. But thanks to the yolk proteins, it also reacts usefully to heat. It lends body and richness when added to thin broths and briefly cooked; when layered onto fish or vegetables and broiled, it moderates the heat, puffs up and sets into a rich coating.

Traditionally, mayonnaise is made with raw egg yolks, and therefore carries a slight risk of salmonella infection. Manufacturers use pasteurized egg yolks, and cooks concerned with salmonella can now find pasteurized eggs in the supermarkets. Both vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil kill bacteria, but mayonnaise is best treated as a highly perishable product that should be served immediately or kept refrigerated.

Making Mayonnaise

All of the ingredients for making mayonnaise should be at room temperature; warmth speeds the transfer of emulsifiers from the yolk particles to the oil droplet services. The simplest method is to mix together everything but the oil- egg yolks, lemon juice and/or vinegar, salt, mustard, garlic – and then whisk in the oil, slowly at first and more rapidly as the yolk thickens. However, the cook can produce more stable small droplets by whisking a portion of the oil into just the yolks and salt to start and then adding the remaining ingredients when the emulsion gets stiff and needs to be thinned. The salt causes the yolk granules to fall apart into its component particles, which makes the yolks become both more clear and more viscous. If left undiluted, this viscosity will help break the oil into smaller droplets.

Though cookbooks often say that the ratio of egg yolk to oil is critical, that one egg yolk can only emulsify a half-cup or cup of oil, that is simply not true. A single yolk can emulsify a dozen cups of oil or more. What is critical is the ratio of oil to water: there must be enough of the continuous phase for the growing population of oil droplets to fit into. For every volume of oil added, the cook should provide a third of that volume in the combination of yolks, lemon juice, vinegar, water or some other water-based liquid.

As a base for other sauces

·         Ranch dressing is made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, and minced green onions, along with other seasonings.

·         Rouille is aïoli with added saffron, red pepper or paprika.

·         Sauce rémoulade, in classic French cuisine is mayonnaise to which has been added mustard, gherkins, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, and possibly anchovy essence.[13] An industrially made variety is popular in Denmark with French fries and fried fish. It is quite different from most of the remoulade sauces that are frequently found in Louisiana and generally do not have a mayonnaise base.

·         Tartar sauce is mayonnaise spiced with pickled cucumbers and onion. Capers, olives, and crushed hardboiled eggs are sometimes included. A simpler recipe calls for only pickle relish to be added to the mayonnaise.

·         Thousand Island dressing is a salmon-pink dressing that combines tomato sauce and/or tomato ketchup or ketchup-based chili sauce, minced sweet pickles or sweet pickle relish, assorted herbs and spices (usually including mustard), and sometimes including chopped hard-boiled egg—all thoroughly blended into a mayonnaise base.

What is it about mustard that keeps a lemon/oil mixture emulsified?

 Mustard seeds contain roughly equal amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and oil. When ground, the protein and carbohydrates bond with oil – coat it actually – and keep it from repelling the water in lemon juice, mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, etc.

According to Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, the coating of the mustard seed also contains a fair bit of mucilage (a thick, sticky, gluey substance with an icky name), and this also helps to coat particles of oil, allowing them to coexist harmoniously with watery substances.

McGee says as much as 5% of the seed weight of the white mustard seed can be mucilage in the coat of the seed. White mustard is often used in sausage-making, he says, to help bind potentially repellent bits of meat.