 | | Name: | Mayonnaise | | Synonym: | Mayo |
| Description: | Mayonnaise is a popular, extremely thick sauce made primarily from vegetable oil and egg yolks.
Whitish-yellow in color, it is a stable emulsion formed from the oil and yolks and is generally flavored with salt, pepper, vinegar and/or lemon juice, and frequently mustard. Additional seasonings give the basic mayonnaise recipe other names (see below).
Making mayonnaise
Mayonnaise is made by slowly adding oil to an egg yolk, mustard, vinegar, and salt. The mustard helps to keep the emulsion stable while whisking vigorously to disperse the oil into the liquid. Egg yolk contains lecithin, which acts as the emulsifier. All ingredients are added at the beginning of the process to prevent speckles. Adding the salt after emulsification can cause white speckles.
These steps produce the basic mayonnaise. The Wiki Cookbook has more elaborate varieties, and a more thorough description of the process. Mayonnaise can be made with an electric mixer, an electric blender, or a food processor, or by hand with a whisk or even a fork. Using a whisk or fork, however, involves fairly tedious physical effort. Blenders and food processors are by far the quickest means of making mayonnaise; some people, however, feel that the end result is inferior to a hand-whisked product.
Adding a bit of mustard will stabilise the emulsion. This is because the small particles it contains serve as nucleation sites for the droplets forming the mayonnaise |
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