Mayonnaise

For the song by The Smashing Pumpkins, see Mayonaise (song).

File:Mayonnaise Brightened.jpg

Mayonnaise made in a food processor with an assortment of standard ingredients

Mayonnaise (or Mayo in its abbreviated form) is a thick sauce made primarily from vegetable oil, lemon juice and egg yolks. Generally whitish-yellow in color, it is a stable emulsion formed from the oil and yolks and is generally flavored with mustard, salt, pepper, vinegar, and/or lemon juice. Numerous other sauces can be created from it by adding additional seasonings (see below).

History and origin of the name

The sauce's idea was brought back to France from Mahon, Spain, after Louis-François-Armand du Plessis de Richelieu's victory over the British at the city's port in 1756. Later, Marie-Antoine Carême made it lighter by blending the vegetable oil and egg yolks into an emulsion; his recipe then became famous throughout Europe.

The name mayonnaise is generally said to have been derived either from Mahon (giving mahonnaise), or from the French word manier (meaning to stir or to blend, giving magnonnaise).

In line with the Larousse Gastronomique 1961, above explanations could be wrong: "However logical Carême's justification for the exclusive use of the term magnonaise may seem, we are not by any means convinced that it should take the place of the usual form, mayonnaise. Mayonnaise, in our view, is a popular corruption of moyeunaise, derived from the very old French word moyeu, which means yolk of egg. For, when all is said, this sauce is nothing but an emulsion of egg yolks and oil."

Since the name's real origin is unknown, several other explanations exist:

• The sauce may have been christened mayennaise after Charles de Lorraine, duke of Mayenne, because he took the time to finish his meal of chicken with cold sauce before being defeated in the Battle of Arques. Though, this suggestion was first made by the nineteenth-century culinary writer Pierre Lacam.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, mayonnaise made its English language debut in a cookbook of 1841.

Making mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is made by slowly adding oil to an egg yolk, while whisking vigorously to disperse the oil. Egg yolk contains lecithin, which acts as the emulsifier.

This produces 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.

Adding a bit of mustard to the yolk at the start stabilises the emulsion. This is because the small particles it contains serve as nucleation sites for the droplets forming the mayonnaise.

Traditional recipe

The traditional French recipe is essentially the same as the basic one described above, but it uses top-quality olive oil and sometimes vinegar or lemon juice. Some nouvelle cuisine recipes specify safflower oil. It is considered essential to constantly beat the mayonnaise using a whisk while adding the olive oil a drop at a time, fully incorporating the oil before adding the next tablespoon. Experienced cooks can judge when the mayonnaise is done by the emulsion's resistance to the beating action. Mayonnaise made this way may taste too strong or sharp to people accustomed to commercial products. One important thing to keep in mind when using olive oil is that overworking the oil can make it bitter. Therefore, it is common to use safflower oil to create the initial emulsion, then add olive oil, working it in with a wooden spoon rather than a wisk.

Composition

Homemade mayonnaise can approach 85% fat before the emulsion breaks down; commercial mayonnaises are more typically 70-80% fat. "Low fat" mayonnaise products contain starches, cellulose gel, or other ingredients to simulate the texture of real mayonnaise.

Commercial producers either pasteurize the yolks, freeze them and substitute water for most of their liquid, or use other emulsifiers. For homemade mayonnaise it is recommended using the freshest eggs possible. Some stores sell pasteurized eggs for home use. The eggs can also be coddled in 170°F (77°C) water, after which the hot yolks, now slightly cooked, are removed from the whites. Homemade mayonnaise will generally only keep under refrigeration for three to four days. A lower-fat version can be made with silken tofu.

Homemade mayonnaise can also be made using raw egg whites, with no yolks at all, if it is done at high speed in a food processor. The resulting texture appears to be the same, and – if seasoned, for example, with salt, pepper, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, and a little paprika – the taste is similar to traditional mayonnaise made with egg yolks.

A jar of mayonnaise

Mayonnaise has a pH between 3.8 and 4.6, making it an acidic food. There is a misconception that foods like potato salad can make a person sick if left out in the sun, due to the mayonnaise spoiling. This is false; the pH of mayonnaise prevents harmful bacteria from growing in it. Left out of refrigeration, mayonnaise will develop an unappetizing taste and smell, due to other types of bacteria and molds that can spoil it; but will not make one sick.

Use of mayonnaise

Worldwide, mayonnaise is most commonly served in a sandwich, or with salad such as potato salad or canned tuna ("tuna mayo" / tuna salad). Regional uses are listed below:

In the US

Commercial mayonnaise sold in jars originated in New York City, in Manhattan's Upper West Side. In 1905, the first ready-made mayonnaise was sold at Richard Hellmann's delicatessen on Columbus Avenue, between 83rd and 84th Streets. In 1912, Mrs. Hellmann's mayonnaise was mass marketed and called Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise.

At about the same time that Hellmann's Mayonnaise was thriving on the East Coast of the United States, a California company, Best Foods, introduced their own mayonnaise, which turned out to be very popular in the western United States. Head-to-head competition between the two brands was averted when, in 1932, Best Foods bought out the Hellmann's brand. By then both mayonnaises had such commanding market shares in their own half of the country that it was decided that both brands be preserved. To this day, Best Foods Mayonnaise is only sold west of the Rocky Mountains, while Hellmann's is sold east of the Rockies.

In the Southeastern part of the United States, Mrs. Eugenia Duke of Greenville, South Carolina founded the Duke's Product Company in 1917 to sell sandwiches to soldiers training at nearby Fort Sevier. Her homemade mayonnaise became so popular that her company began to focus exclusively on producing and selling the mayonnaise, eventually selling out to the C.F. Sauer company in 1929. Duke's Mayonnaise, still made to the original recipe, remains a popular brand of mayonnaise in the Southeast, although it is not generally available in other markets. Reily Foods Company of New Orleans, LA produces Blue Plate Mayonnaise, an extremely popular mayonnaise in the Southern United States. Formerly owned by Hunt-Wesson and manufactured in New Orleans, LA, Blue Plate Mayonnaise is now produced in Knoxville, TN.

Europe

In northern Europe mayonnaise is often served with chips (french fries), especially in the The Netherlands and Germany, as well as increasingly in the United Kingdom and France. It is also served with cold chicken or hard-boiled eggs in The Netherlands, France and the UK.

Guidelines issued in September 1991 by Europe's Federation of the Condiment Sauce Industries recommend that oil and liquid egg yolk levels in mayonnaise should be at least 70% and 5% respectively, although this is not legislated. Most available brands easily exceed this target. [1]

Japan

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Japanese Mayonnaise in squeeze bottle, Kewpie brand

Japanese mayonnaise, typically made with rice vinegar, tastes somewhat different from mayonnaise made from distilled vinegar and is yellowish in appearance. It is most often sold in soft plastic squeeze bottles. Apart from salads, it is popular with dishes such as okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yakisoba. It is sometimes served with cooked vegetables, or mixed with soy sauce or wasabi and used as dips. In the Tōkai region, it is a frequent condiment on hiyashi chuka (cold noodle salad).

Kewpie (Q.P.) is the most popular brand of Japanese mayonnaise, advertised with a Kewpie doll logo.

People who are known to like Mayonnaise are commonly called 'Mayora' (マヨラー) by their friends.

Russia

Mayonnaise is very popular in Russia where it is made with sunflower seed oil which gives it a very distinctive flavor. A 2004 study showed that Russia is the only market in Europe where more mayonnaise is sold than ketchup by volume. Leading brands are Calve (marketed by Unilever) and Sloboda (marketed by Efko). [2]

Chile

Chile is the world's third major per capita consumer of mayonnaise and first in Latin America. [3] Since mayonnaise became widely accessible in the 80s Chileans have used it on Hot dogs, French fries, and on boiled potatoes.

As a base for other sauces

Mayonnaise is one of the mother sauces of classic French cooking, so it is the base for many other chilled sauces and salad dressings. For example:

• Aïoli is olive oil mayonnaise combined with garlic.
• Rouille is aïoli with added red pepper or paprika.
• Tartar sauce is mayonnaise spiced with pickled cucumbers and onion. Capers, olives, and crushed hardboiled eggs are sometimes included. Often made with sweet pickle relish.
• Some types of Russian dressing (also known as Marie Rose sauce in Europe) combine mayonnaise with tomato sauce or ketchup and yoghurt or heavy cream added. In North America, however, most homemade varieties and all commercial brands of Russian dressing use little or no mayonnaise as a base. They are very dark red and sweet dressings made with vegetable oil, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, and a variety of herbs and spices (often including mustard).
• Thousand Island dressing is a salmony-pink colored dressing that combines tomato sauce and/or tomato ketchup, minced sweet pickles or sweet pickle relish, assorted herbs and spices (usually including mustard), and sometimes including chopped hard-boiled egg -- all thoroughly blended into a mayonnaise base. It is called "Thousand Island" dressing because it was first served at the Thousand Island Hotel in upstate New York (located in the American section of the Thousand Islands, on the U.S.-Canada border in the Saint Lawrence River).
• Fry sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup or another red sauce (e.g. Tabasco sauce or Buffalo wing sauce), and spices, commonly eaten on french fries in Utah, southern Idaho, and rural Oregon.
• Mayonesa is a lime-flavored mayonnaise, usually found in Mexican or Spanish grocers in North America.
• Sauce rémoulade in classic French cuisine, according the Larousse Gastronomique, is mayonnaise to which has been added mustard, gherkins, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, and possibly anchovy essence . It is quite different from most of the remoulade sauces that are frequently found in Louisiana and that generally do not have a mayonnaise base.
• Ranch dressing, is made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, and minced green onion, along with other seasonings.
• Honey Mustard, is made primarily of mayonnaise and includes lemon juice, mustard, and brown sugar.

External links

• Creative Cooking School website: offers six possible sources of sauce mayonnaise, including Pierre Lacam's suggestion.
• Science Channel's The Making Series: #2 Making of Mayonnaise (video in Japanese)
• NPR's Report on the 250th Birthday of Mayonnaise and its history

See also

• Salad cream
• Miracle Whip
• Hellmann's and Best Foods