Homemade Mayonnaise

In my previous post, I mentioned homemade mayonnaise. And here's how to make it:

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1 tbl fresh lemon juice
1 tbl white vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil mix (I use 3/4 cup olive oil and 3/4 cup canola oil, but it's really up to you. If you find the scent of the olive oil a little heavy, you can use more canola oil. I've not tried this recipe with other oils like soya bean or corn oil, but I suppose those oils might add their own flavour into the mayo, so you can experiment to get the flavour you like.)

Method:
1. In the mixer, beat the yolks, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, sugar and Dijon mustard.
2. Whilst the mixer is beating the above ingredients, drizzle a teaspoonful of the vegetable oil into the mixer at intervals of 5 to 10 seconds. This is to allow the oil to incorporate into the yolk to from an emulsion.

(Here is a whole aside into Science which you can teach your kids - and I do since Ethan's being homeschooled. *winks* An emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that normally can't be combined, eg oil and water or here, vinegar/lemon juice and oil. Emulsifying is done by slowly adding one ingredient to another while simultaneously mixing rapidly, which disperses and suspends tiny droplets of one liquid through another.

However, the two liquids would quickly separate again unless an emulsifier is added to set and stabilise the mixture. Eggs and gelatin are among the foods that contain emulsifiers, and in mayonnaise, the emulsifier is the lecithin in egg yolk.

Emulsification is used in making medicine, and in making various items like paint, make-up, detergents and explosive. Thus concludes this post's Science lesson.)

3. Once you get a pasty mixture from your oil addition, you can add the oil in larger amount, making sure that the mixture remains an emulsion.

4. Once all the oil is incorporated, just put your mayonnaise into a jar and you're done!


For those of you worried about using raw egg yolk in cooking for fear of salmonella, make sure that the egg shell is washed before use. The egg itself doesn't contain the salmonella germs, which are actually found in fecal matter - on the outside of the egg or on unwashed hands. Therefore, wash your eggs in a mild bleach solution if you're worried (and keep those hands clean!), to kill those salmonella germs. Hey, now the Science lesson is really over! *grins*