Condiments are the kinds of things you just assume you have to buy. Or, possibly more accurately, you never even think about making. That’s what I’ve always thought of mayonnaise. Well, until I read a post written by Michael Ruhlman on the subject last week. The thing that most surprised me was how few ingredients go into the making of mayo, if you’ve got water, salt, an egg yolk, a lemon, vegetable oil, a whisk and a fair amount of arm strength, you can make your own too!
You can see Ruhlman’s much more interesting ideas on the subject by clicking the above link, but I figured I’d explain my personal experience with something I’ve never tasted: homemade mayo. I combined the salt, water, lemon juice and egg yolk in a sturdy bowl and gave them a mixing with the whisk. I then followed Ruhlman’s advice and started adding small amounts of oil from my measuring cup via a spoon.
The key to all this is to make sure your emulsion doesn’t break (turn liquid-y). I really didn’t want that to happen and have to start the process all over again — and wasn’t sure if my arm could have taken it again, to be honest — so I just went very slowly when adding the oil. It wound up going really well, but like I mentioned, my arm was pretty tired by the end of the process.
We had the mayo with some cheeseburgers and corn I made the other night — post coming tomorrow — and it was pretty tasty. After all that work, I feel like I need to figure more things to put mayonnaise on.
Pop Poppa 
I will have to try this! I’ll cheat and use the kitchen aid 🙂
That would definitely work too. Make sure to use it in a meal or two though, mine broke after a few days in the fridge.