Mayonnaise

When most people think of mayonnaise, a jar of Hellman’s is sure to pop up. It’s easy to just grab one and stick it in your shopping cart. The concept of making it yourself seems tedious and unnecessary. But in actuality, it’s just as easy as making any other sauce or dressing.

The key—according to Ina Garten, Alton Brown, Julia Child, or any other great chef—is having ingredients that are room temperature. That is especially true for the eggs. Americans keep their eggs in the refrigerator while Europeans happily keep their eggs on the countertop. Even European supermarkets have them in the dry goods section and not refrigerated. That may be because they use them more often in recipes or they just like the fuller taste of the egg when it’s not cold.

To be fair, if you’re going to use your eggs frequently, it’s probably just fine to leave them out. But if you don’t use them all the time for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then keeping them in the fridge is probably the best spot.

But when it comes to mayonnaise, Americans view it as a condiment right up there with mustard and ketchup. Sure, it can be. But the French, in particular, view it as an elegant sauce. The flavor is bright with the acidic touch of lemon and the texture is silky smooth.

“Mayonnaise like hollandaise is a process of forcing egg yolks to absorb a fatty substance, oil in this case,” Julia Child is quoted as saying, “and to hold it in thick and creamy suspension.”

It is an emulsion in which the oil you use becomes the predominant flavor, so be careful to choose something neutral. Unless of course, you want a different kind of flavor. In that case, you may want to balance three parts of a nutty or fruity oil with one part neutral.

And that’s the thing about mayonnaise: it’s a base for so many other flavors. Add garlic, it’s aioli. Add basil and Parmesan, it’s a crudité dip. Add Dijon, capers, and cornichons, it’s a rémoulade. Add tomato and roasted red pepper, it’s a Sauce Andalouse. Curry. Saffron. Horseradish! The possibilities are endless.

Of all the recipes you can sift through—like Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which devotes an entire section to “The Mayonnaise Family”—the following recipe is probably the one I like the best. (Thank you, Martha Stewart.)

Here you go:

2 large egg yolks

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

4 tsp. lemon juice

1 c. vegetable oil

salt and pepper to taste

You can whisk, blend, or place in a food processor. Pulse yolks, mustard, and lemon juice until thoroughly combined. Add oil slowly in steady stream. (If using a processor or blender, keep it running as you add the oil. If whisking, keep it going until the color turns a soft yellow and the consistency nicely thickens.) Season with salt and pepper. Can be refrigerated and kept for up to one week.

(Note: I felt the recipe was a touch thick. If you’d like to thin it out, you can add a little more lemon juice or white wine vinegar.)