Mayonayonnaise!

Making your own condiments is a good way of controlling which ingredients go into it and thus ensuring that it is gluten-free. Not to mention it is tastier than store bought brands. In this case it’s also quite a bit cheaper, actually. The ingredients are things that most people usually have in their homes. Which vegetable oil you use will depend on what you have in your house or what you would prefer. You could use olive, avocado, grapeseed, canola, or just plain sunflower or soya oil. The only preservatives in this recipe are natural ones – vinegar or lemon juice, and a small quantity of sugar and salt. Another reason to make your own mayonnaise – as is often the case with me, is if you’ve run out and can’t pop down to the shops to get some more.

Whipping up your own batch is much simpler than you might think; especially if you have a blender or food processor. Mayonnaise is basically an emulsion of egg and oil, so the trick is just a little bit of patience. If you wish to do it by hand you need to use serious elbow grease, and arm strength is not something I possess. Doing it by hand would be a job for my mom; that’s why she makes the best dairy fudge in the world! So I would recommend only attempting it if your arms don’t get tired too quickly.

I also make a slightly healthier version of this recipe, which I will share with you in part 2 of my Food Revolution dinner party blog. I use it in a lovely dressing for a beetroot salad. If you didn’t catch the first post in this series, you can read it here. Of course, you can also use the mayonnaise in all the ways you would usually enjoy it, like the salad my husband and I had for lunch today, or the tuna filling I created to eat with spicy pudlas.

In addition to this, you can make whichever variations you can dream up, for example; adding ¼ teaspoon of crushed chilli or peri-peri for a bit of spice, or pureé some peppadews and mix it in, or mush up an avocado to make an avo dip. However you prefer to enjoy your mayonnaise, making your own is well worth the little bit of time and effort. In fact, it will take longer to jump in your car and sit in traffic to go to the shops than it will to make it yourself, as it only takes about 10 minutes.

This is what you’ll need:

2 free range / organic eggs

½ t salt

1 t mustard (I used German mustard), or ½ t mustard powder

1/8 t sugar

4 – 5 t white vinegar (or lemon juice)

1 cup vegetable oil (depending on the quantity you would like – I only used ½ cup today)

4 t hot water

This is how to do it:

Step 1

Separate the yolks from the eggs, like this.

Place the egg whites in a food saver for later. For example; on the day of my Food Revolution dinner party, I used the egg whites for another recipe I was making. Today, I’ll be using the egg whites in the chocolate cupcakes I’m going to make after posting this blog.

Step 2

Place yolks, salt, mustard, sugar and three teaspoons of the vinegar in the blender (or food processor fitted with the metal chopping blades), and buzz for 15 seconds on low speed. Next, with the motor running at a moderately high speed, slowly drizzle ¼ cup of oil into the yolk mixture.

Step 3

At this point, the mixture will start to thicken. As this happens, continue adding the oil in a fine, steady stream, alternating with hot water and another teaspoon or two of vinegar. A word of warning; the mixture splatters quite a bit as it thickens, this is when you should add a teaspoon of hot water or vinegar.

You’ll need to scrape the mixture down from the sides of the blender with a silicone spatula every now and then.

Tip:
If you only use half a cup of oil, as I did today, it will make 200 ml of mayonnaise. If you use a cup, it will yield about 320 ml. I would advise you not to make more than this quantity for normal use, as it won’t last as long as store bought condiments. These usually last longer because of all the preservatives they put into it – something that doesn’t put me at ease. It keeps well in the fridge for up to a week, even longer if you’ve used fresh eggs.