Adventures in Eggland: Mayonnaise

One of my latest attempts with my vonderful Eggland's Best dozen is homemade mayonnaise. Something I had never thought to attempt before, but while brainstorming for ideas to try to make with these eggs, things I've never made before or are fun and interesting to make, this was one of them. In the video game, Harvest Moon, which is like... Farmville but older/better, you can put eggs into a machine and make mayonnaise-- from chicken and duck eggs. The duck stuff is called duckonnaise I think. Which is funny.

So I made it! It was hard to whip it up, and it didn't set properly at first. I couldn't get it to emulsify just as I wanted it to, but after it sat in the fridge when I'd given up it thickened up considerably. Unfortunately, I don't eat a lot of mayo, so I'm pretty sure this is going to go to waste. I used it in my egg salad sandwich, but I haven't gotten any sandwich meats or anything (I might do that today) so that Brian and I can eat it, and now I'm nervous it won't be good anymore. (It's sitting in his fridge). I know it has a day or two shelf life. You'd think mayonnaise would last longer than that in the fridge. Preservatives sure do a lot.

I adjusted this recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Brian owns a copy, the handsome devil. I used olive oil , despite the book's warning to use a milder oil to mix. But I liked it-- it's got a heavy evoo flavour, but it's still very tasty. Still tastes eggy too.


Mayonnaise

1 egg yolk
juice from 1/4 a lemon
sea salt/rock salt (I used pink sea salt)
1/2 cup oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
white pepper
about 1/2 teaspoon mustard
paprika
cayenne pepper


Beat the egg yolk and lemon juice together until thick and frothy. Add salt to taste and continue whisking. Slowly, VERY slowly, add the oil in a very very slow drizzle. This is important -- that it's slow, you don't want the emulsion to break. I was able to slowly dribble some out of my container. Once combined, mix in the white pepper, mustard, and a little dash of paprika and cayenne. Continue whisking until thick --- if you can, until it's really thick and fluffy. That didn't work for me, so I mixed it for fifteen minutes or so then put it in the fridge.

I'm obviously not going to be a mayo maker, haha!
But I want to make like... garlic aioli out of this. :D