mayonnaise

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Standard ingredients and tools to make a mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise (sometimes abbreviated to mayo) is a thick condiment. White or yellowish-white in color, it is a stable emulsion of oil, salt and vinegar, or lemon juice which uses egg yolks as an emulsifier. In France, sometimes mustard is added as a flavoring,^[1] whereas in Spain (and Minorca) it is made using the same ingredients, but specifically olive oil as the oil, and never with mustard. Numerous other sauces can be created from it by adding additional seasonings.

Origin

There are a number of different explanations for the origin of the term mayonnaise.

The French Larousse Gastronomique 1961 suggests: "Mayonnaise, in our view, is a popular corruption of moyeunaise, derived from the very old French word moyeu, which means yolk of egg." ^[2] 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^{[citation needed]}.

Nineteenth-century culinary writer Pierre Lacam suggested that in 1459, a London woman named Annamarie Turcauht stumbled upon this condiment after trying to create a custard of some sort.^[3]

Another common explanation of mayonnaise's origin is that the recipe was brought back to France from the town of Mahon in Menorca, after Louis-François-Armand du Plessis de Richelieu's victory over the British at the city's port in 1756. According to this version, the sauce was originally known as salsa mahonesa (as it is still known on Menorca), later becoming mayonnaise as it was popularized by the French.^[4]

According to Trutter et al.: "It is highly probable that wherever olive oil existed, a simple preparation of oil and egg came about – particularly in the Mediterranean region, where aioli (oil and garlic) is made."^[4]

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

Making mayonnaise

Mayonnaise can be made with an electric mixer, an electric blender, or a food processor, or by hand with a whisk or fork. Mayonnaise is made by slowly adding oil to an egg yolk, while whisking vigorously to disperse the oil. The oil and the water in yolks form a base of the emulsion, while the lecithin from the yolks is the emulsifier that stabilizes it. Additionally, a bit of a mustard may also be added to sharpen its taste, and further stabilize the emulsion. Mustard contains small amounts of lecithin.^[5]

Traditional recipe

The traditional European 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 strong or sharp to people accustomed to commercial products.

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.

Some homemade recipes use the whole egg, including the white. It can also be made using solely 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.^{[citation needed]}.

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.

Commercial Mayonnaise, due to the addition of acids like vinegar or lemon juice, 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.^[6]

Use of Mayonnaise

A jar of mayonnaise.

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

Europe

In western Europe, mayonnaise is often served with pommes frites (French fries or chips), especially in Belgium and The Netherlands. It is also served with cold chicken or hard-boiled eggs in France, the UK, The Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine.

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.^[7]

In North America

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 by a family from Vetschau, Germany 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. In 1932, Best Foods bought 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. The company is now owned by Unilever.

In the Southeastern part of the United States, Mrs. Eugenia Duke of Greenville, South Carolina, founded the Duke Sandwich 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 of Richmond, Virginia, 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.

In Canada Kraft Foods is the largest purveyor of mayonnaise. In its television advertising it attempts to spread the French pronunciation "my-o-nezz" but this has not caught on with consumers.^{[citation needed]}

Japan

Japanese mayonnaise.

Japanese mayonnaise is typically made with apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar and a small amount of MSG, which gives it a different flavor from mayonnaise made from distilled vinegar. It is most often sold in soft plastic squeeze bottles. Its texture is thinner than most Western commercial mayonnaise. A variety containing karashi (Japanese mustard) is also common.

Apart from salads, it is popular with dishes such as okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yakisoba and usually accompanies katsu and karaage. 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). Many fried seafood dishes are served with a side of mayonnaise for dipping. It is also not uncommon for Japanese to use mayonnaise in place of tomato sauce on pizza.

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

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^{[citation needed]} showed that Russia is the only market in Europe where more mayonnaise is sold than ketchup by volume. It's used as a sauce in the most popular salads in Russia such as Russian Salad [oliv'e] and Dressed Herring and also many others. Leading brands are Calve (marketed by Unilever) and Sloboda (marketed by Efko).

Furthermore, in many Russian speaking countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.), one can find different commercial flavors of mayonnaise, such as olive, quail-egg, and lemon.

Chile

Chile is the world's third major per capita consumer of mayonnaise and first in Latin America. Since mayonnaise became widely accessible in the 1980s Chileans have used it on locos, hot dogs, French fries, and on boiled potatoes.

Australia

In Australia, sugar is added to mayonnaise by most manufacturers and vinegar or lemon juice omitted: unsweetened mayonnaise has not been marketed with wide success. The S&N brand is the only brand in wide distribution which is unsweetened. The American Subway fast food chain has experimented unsuccessfully with unsweetened mustard and other savory condiments but has settled on "honey mustard" as a condiment that Australians will accept. Highly sweetened mayonnaise is used in potato salads and other delicatessen fare in Australia, but it must be very sweet to find favor with Australian consumers. Tartar sauce (spelled "tartare" and pronounced "tah-tear"), with a mayonaise base, is sweetened even more.

As a base for other sauces

Mayonnaise is the base for many other chilled sauces and salad dressings. For example:

• Fry sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup or another red sauce (e.g., Tabasco sauce, Buffalo wing sauce, or one of many smokey barbecue sauces popular in the Northwestern United States), spices, and sometimes a strong tasting salty liquid (such as worcestershire or soy sauce) is added to balance out the sweeter red sauces. Commonly eaten on french fries in Utah, Idaho, eastern Washington and rural Oregon.
• Marie Rose sauce combines mayonnaise with tomato sauce or ketchup, cream, flavorings and brandy. In North America, a processed version of Marie-Rose, called "Russian Dressing" sometimes uses mayonnaise as a base. However, most homemade varieties and nearly 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).
• Ranch dressing is made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, and minced green onion, along with other seasonings.
• Rouille is aïoli with added saffron, red pepper or paprika.
• Salsa golf created in Argentina is Mayonnaise with ketchup as well as spices such as red pepper or oregano.
• Sauce rémoulade, in classic French cuisine is mayonnaise to which has been added mustard, gherkins, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, and possibly anchovy essence.^[8] An industrially made variety is popular in Denmark with french fries and fried fish. It is quite different from most of the remoulade sauces that are frequently found in Louisiana and generally do not have a mayonnaise base.
• Tartar sauce is mayonnaise spiced with pickled cucumbers and onion. Capers, olives, and crushed hardboiled eggs are sometimes included. A simpler recipe calls for only pickle relish to be added to the mayonnaise.
• Thousand Island dressing is a salmon-pink dressing that combines tomato sauce and/or tomato ketchup or ketchup-based chili sauce, 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.
• Certain variations of honey mustard are based on mayonnaise and are made by combining mayonnaise with plain mustard, brown sugar, and lemon juice.

See also

Notes

External links

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Mayonnaise

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mayonnaise

• How To Make Mayonnaise from About.com
• 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