How to make homemade mayonnaise for all your grilling needs.
I’ve been wanting to experiment with more homemade condiments so I decided to start with this homemade mayo recipe from The Sauce Book. Mayonnaise is one of my favorite condiments. Not only is it a rich and indulgent component in a multitude of daily dishes, it plays an especially pivotal role in a grill master’s repertoire. While store bought mayo is more than adequate for just about any application, if you’re looking to truly impress your guests, making your own definitely buys you credibility and respect.
This can also be a life saving skill to have should you ever run out of mayo; it’s definitely less of a pain to whip up a batch than drive to the store to get some. It applies to other things as well. For some more examples visit AtulArvind.com.
Here’s what you need:
- 2 egg yolks (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup sunflower oil
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Note that various factors including your taste preferences, what the mayonnaise is being paired with, and what you may be adding to the mayo later will affect the amount of lemon juice, salt and pepper you’ll use to season it.
I started by measuring a cup of sunflower oil into a pour-friendly container. This beaker has a rubber stopper and spot paired with it, which made it easier to pour with one hand.
Combine the egg yolk, mustard, and white wine vinegar in the bowl of your choice. Note that my choice was poor here. A smaller bowl would have made it easier to whisk, and would have saved my assistant quite a bit of whisking effort. [Noted for next time, Court!]
Add the oil slowly in a thin stream and whisk constantly. When all the oil is incorporated and the mayonnaise thickens, add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to flavor. You can just see a dish towel in the bottom of the picture above, you can use this or a silicone mat to stabilize the bowl while you’re mixing.
And there you go! Homemade mayonnaise in just a few minutes and relatively fuss free. You should be able to throw it in the fridge for a couple of days, but I wouldn’t keep it much longer than that. This batch went to some bison burgers shortly after it’s inception, but you can also extend the impact of this recipe by using it as a base. Some easy mayonnaise extensions include chipotle, herbs, more dijon, horseradish, dill, sun dried tomato, olive…
Broken or funky tasting mayonnaise? Check out some potential issues and solutions below.
If your mayonnaise broke or never fully emulsified: it’s likely that your ingredients were too cold; be sure to start at room temperature. If everything was at room temperature, you may have added the oil too fast or not mixed it together enough as it was being added. Still not the case? Check your emulsifiers; the egg yolk (were they particularly small?) or the mustard (not enough, or may it have been low quality?)
If your mayonnaise has a funky taste: it’s likely that something is throwing the balance out of whack. I’ve seen this first hand when olive oil was used instead of a neutrally flavored oil. Off eggs are certainly a candidate, as is particularly strong or flavored mustard (pecan Dijon, for instance.)