Real-Deal Mayo

Mayonnaise has always freaked me out.  Every time I saw mayo as a kid being added to egg salad, or a sandwich, I would promptly refuse to eat to eat it.  Something about the gelatinous look.  Yuck.

Fast forward and I'm still freaked out by mayo.  However, now my fear is more about what's in mayo that's the problem.  The popular brand, Hellman's, boasts around 20 ingredients, most of which I can't pronounce let alone now what they are!  Take a look next time you reach in the fridge for some mayo.  You might just wind up whipping up a batch of my mayo; three ingredients and less than 2 minutes to make.  Since discovering this, I have let go of my mayo fear.

The tricky part of making mayo is getting the ingredients to emulsify.  When I first started attempting to make my own mayo, I usually failed in that department.  I was left with a clumpy looking liquid liquid.  Not the most appetizing thing I've ever seen.  But I learned from my failures, and have since made multiple batches in a row yielding perfect results.

Here are my tips to making the perfect mayo:

1. Make sure of is all your ingredients are at room temperature.  That means take the egg and mustard out of the fridge well in advance.  You can always speed up this process by putting an egg in warm water to get it to room temp faster.

2.  Use a food processor.  Some say a you can use a whisk, others a electronic hand-held beater, but I'm here to tell you to go straight for the food processor.  It will make your life easier, and yield perfect results every time.  The key to the making mayo is streaming a light, stead flow of oil into the mixture while constantly beating.  You see how that can be challenging.  With a food processor running, you simply have to worry about keeping a slow and steady stream of oil running.  The machine does the rest.

That's it!  Once you get the hang of it and try homemade mayo, you will never go back to store bought.  And why would you? Boasting nothing but wholesome ingredients and adding a phenomenal flavor to anything you would use mayo for, there is no reason open a jar of mayo again!


Real-Deal Mayo

1 1/4 cups olive oil, divided
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp lemon juice

Directions:
1.  Add 1/4 cup of the olive oil, egg, mustard, and salt to the base of a food processor.  Process until smooth.
2.  Scrape down the sides.  With the food processor running, slowly add the remaining olive oil in a slow and steady stream.  I mean, SLOW AND STEADY!  This is key to the emulsion process.
3.  Fold in the lemon juice (to taste), then store in a air-tight container in the fridge.