Mayonnaise Sauce Hints and Tips

• Use the freshest eggs available (backyard chickens, anyone?), since the lecithin in the egg yolk is what emulsifies the oil, keeping the product smooth and creamy.
• If olive oil is used, the Mayonnaise should be used at once. When refrigerated, it will crystallize or solidify. Olive oil makes a very fruity Mayonnaise.

• Using a hand-held immersion blender makes this task very easy. Crack the eggs in the container you plan to use to store the Mayonnaise. A clean generic salsa jar works perfectly. Add the vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, oil and seasonings. Plunge the immersion blender into the container then turn on high. The bottom of the mixture will turn instantly into Mayonnaise. While the immersion blender is still running, very slowly lift up the blender to incorporate all of the oil.
• Some grocers and specialty food shops sell “sterile” (free of food-borne bacteria), pre-separated egg whites and yolks.
• To ensure you are adding the oil slowly enough, put the oil into a “squeeze bottle” (like those used for mustard or ketchup, with a narrow nozzle) and squeeze it from that into the mixture. As a guideline to tell if you are doing it slowly enough, it should take at least a minute to add all the oil this way.
• Make sure that all the oil is fully incorporated into the Mayonnaise before adding more. If you rush the process, the Mayonnaise will “break,” or ‘curdle’ and the emulsion will release all its fat to become a useless pile of oil and egg yolks.

To recover a broken/curdled Mayonnaise, do one of the following:

• Place another yolk in another bowl and slowly whisk the old mixture into the egg yolk.
• Pour some vinegar down the side of the bowl and slowly work the Mayonnaise back together, quickly whisking the oil and egg near the vinegar into the vinegar and then bit by bit whisk the rest of the eggs and oil into this. This is more difficult than the other methods.
• Place a teaspoon of water into another bowl and then add the broken/curdled Mayonnaise drop by drop into the water while whisking, just like you added the oil to the egg yolks before. When you have incorporated all of the broken/curdled Mayonnaise into the water, slowly add the remaining oil (if any) while whisking, just as in the previous method.