Mayonnaise: recipe

The recipe for cooking the "mayonnaise" sauce is lost in the depths of centuries, however, not so far. With a great deal of confidence, we can say that it appeared not earlier than the middle of the 18th century in France. There are several beautiful legends about his invention by the court chef of the Duke de Richelieu, but these legends do not cause much confidence. Credible evidence and documents simply do not exist. It seems that the Old French word meaning "yolk" gave this sauce the name "mayonnaise". The recipe is quite difficult for accidental enlightenment. Mayonnaise is an emulsion, in other words, a mixture of immiscible substances. In our case, oils and water, and the stabilizer of the emulsion, or else the emulsifier, is the egg yolk, or rather the substance called lecithin, contained in the yolk. The cheaper lecithin is now obtained from soy, and it has supplanted the yolks from the industrial production of mayonnaise. If the physicist invented mayonnaise, the recipe for cooking would be exactly as described by an unknown cook. This fact is worthy of surprise.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the famous French chef Olivier appeared on the stage of world cuisine, just the one who enriched Russian cuisine with the same salad. He adds a dry mustard powder at the emulsion stage , which turned out to be an excellent emulsifier. So there is a recipe for mayonnaise "Provansal" - producing it is much easier than simple. Let me remind you that beating up mayonnaise by hand is a very laborious process, it required quickness and hard power from the cook or his assistants. Probably at that time there was a profession of "mayonnaise shaker" and recruited galleries there.

The invention of the mixer greatly facilitated the process of producing the mayonnaise sauce. The recipe for cooking also gradually changed with the opening of cheap soybean emulsifiers. In home mayonnaise, there is no chemical know-how, and he retained all the virtues inherited from his genius Olivier.

To make the mayonnaise "Provansal", the recipe prescribes the presence of eggs, vegetable oil, mustard powder, vinegar or citric acid. To begin with, we separate the protein from the yolk, it must be done very carefully, since the protein is not an emulsifier and can greatly damage the creation of an emulsion. Eggs should be fresh, so it's best to buy them on the market.

Now you need to choose a comfortable whisking utensils. Usually the mixer is supplied with a set of cups, the one that goes up and down will go. We put yolk, sugar on the bottom, add a spoonful of mustard powder and a drop of oil. The oil should be odorless, there is not much difference from what it is produced, but gourmets say that for a quality product one must take exceptionally refined olive oil. Turn on the mixer and whisk, add a drop of oil. If the mixture begins to thicken right before your eyes, it means everything is going fine - we continue to add oil, now not by drop, but by a spoon. In the future, you can pour oil in a thin trickle, without turning off or removing the mixer. Somewhere by the end of the cooking process, add vinegar or citric acid. Mayonnaise noticeably lighter: its color changes from amber to ivory. At this stage, we have nothing to fear, you can salt, pepper, add spices and even water, if, in your opinion, it is too thick. The taste of mayonnaise can be given any shade to anyone that you like.

It does not take more than 10 minutes to prepare, or even less. Since our mayonnaise, the preparation of which does not presuppose the use of preservatives, artificial emulsifiers and other not very pleasant things, consists only of natural products, the storage period is limited to 3-5 days, after that it begins to break up into fractions, the oil intensively goes up, Taste qualities are lost. Therefore, do not harvest it for future use. Prepare exactly the amount that you can use for one or two times.