Mayonnaise

A simple mayonnaise really is a 10 minute job, and you probably have most of what you need about the place already. Essentially you need eggs, oil, an acid and a mustard. Here's a recipe for a simple classic mayo.

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/2 pint Vegetable Oil

1 tbsp White Wine Vinegar

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Some salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients apart from the oil in a bowl and whisk to combine.

Adding the mustard and vinegar at this stage makes formally an emulsion easier. Start adding the oil, only about a teaspoon at a time at first. You'll start to notice the mixture changing colour and getting smoother and thicker.

As you go you can start adding more oil and whisking it quickly into the mayonnaise. The quicker you whisk the finer the droplets in the emulsion will be, the thicker and creamier you mayo will be. Eventually it'll thicken up somewhat.

You'll notice some resistance against the whisk and using one hand whilst the other pours the oil will become less practical. So the trick here is to place a folded wet cloth under the bowl to stop it sliding around on the work surface.

Once you're happy with the consistency season with the salt and pepper and maybe adjust the vinegar to your taste.

You should have a rich thick mayonnaise ready to spoon out and serve or use as a base for other sauces.

There's loads you can do with mayo. Hundreds of dip variants and salad dressings use it as a base. One day I'll go into a bit more detail on the blog about how easy it is to make 1000 Island dressing, or tartar sauce, or remoulade. Ok, so at this point you're no Richard Hellmann, but I bet your mayonnaise already tastes better than anything you've gone and bought.