Saturday, September 8, 2012

Mr. Hawthorne Makes Mayonnaise.

 Mr. Hawthorne has been wanting
to make his own mayonnaise
and he recently made a batch.


 Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
4 pinches sugar
4 tsp lemon juice
2 TB white wine vinegar
2 cups oil

In a glass bowl, whisk together egg yolks and dry ingredients.  Combine lemon juice and vinegar in a separate bowl then thoroughly whisk half into the yolk mixture.  Start whisking briskly, then start adding the oil a few drops at a time until you have a nice emulsion.  Once you reach this point, you can relax your arm a bit and increase the oil flow to a very thin stream.  Once half the oil is in, add the rest of the lemon juice mixture.  Continue whisking until all the oil is incorporated.

I will admit right now
I am not a mayonnaise person.
Just looking at a jar of Hellman's gives me the heaves.
No sandwich has ever passed my lips with mayonnaise on it.

Oh wait.
There was that tomato just picked from the garden,
sliced, salted and peppered,
and thrown on a piece of Wonder bread
that happened to have some Hellman's on it.

I guess that's a Southern thang.
So simple.
Yet so good.
And so memorable.
I remember Mr. Hawthorne
fixed me my first one about 30 years ago.
Plus you have the beauty of the tomato juice
drizzling down your chin and staining your white T-shirt.
Yup.
A tomato sandwich in the summertime
is a thing of beauty.



That said,
the homemade stuff is a horse of a different color.
That stuff is wonderful.

If you're already a mayo-lover,
this will put you over the top.

If you're anti-mayo,
give this a try.
There's a good chance you'll become a convert.

 Mr. Hawthorne didn't stop with just regular mayonnaise.

He made a roasted garlic mayo and a basil mayo.

When we baked a chicken the other night,
I stuffed a whole head of garlic inside the bird to cook.
Mr. Hawthorne added a few squeezes of that roasted garlic
into his mayonnaise.
Roasted garlic is very mild
and it squeezes out of the skin as a paste.
Just mix it in with the mayonnaise, to taste.
The garlic mayonnaise is quite nice
on a hamburger.


For the basil mayo,
he simply added chopped fresh basil.
I slathered some on my BLT this morning.
That was a treat.

Too bad he ran out of mayo.
I was looking forward to making a tarragon mayonnaise.
 Or a dill mayonnaise.
Oooh...
Cilantro.
So many possibilities.




10 comments:

  1. OMG. Tomato sandwich. The supreme gift of summer.

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  2. Rosie, Rosie. *SUGAR* in mayonnaise? I'm going to have to send out the kitchen police.

    Might try mixing some EVOO in next time. Glad to see Mr. H. is eating real food again.

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  3. Oh Geeze, EAM. You are entirely too anal. (Who'd a thunk?) Chill and give it a try. This was damn good mayo.

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  4. And it was PINCHES! PINCHES! of sugar.

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  5. And EAM, Mr. H. isn't really eating real food. He makes it, takes one finger tasting, and that's it.

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  6. Oh Rosie, a mention of Kewpie Mayonnaise and you go over to the dark side. Next I know you'll be putting sugar in cornbread. However, before you fall completely off the path, try this with the homemade mayo:

    http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2009/06/banh-mi-sandwich-recipe.html

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  7. EAM, I do NOT put sugar in my cornbread. Some lines are not meant to be crossed.

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  8. I notice Mr. Hawthorne's arms are looking lean.

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  9. Anony, I'll tell him you noticed. 40 pounds and counting.

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