Mayonnaise

I've been waffling on the idea of making homemade mayonnaise, mainly because it seems like a bit of a waste.  I know it's really easy to do, but the idea of making a batch of stuff that will only last 2-3 days (because of the raw eggs) seemed annoying to me.  While the ability to make chicken salad, egg salad and tuna salad sandwiches appealed to me (since deli meat is all but off the menu), I was too worried about killing us. 

Lo and behold, the internet came through again.  I found a method of making mayo that supposedly will last a few weeks.  A few weeks is good enough for me.  The added ingredient is whey.  Apparently the good bacteria in whey helps to preserve it.  Don't ask me how, because I have no idea.  Since I recently made cheese, I had a surplus of whey that I froze into 1Tbsp amounts (knowing this was on the horizon).  If you need whey, the easiest way to get it is to drain some plain yogurt through cheesecloth.  The liquid that comes out is whey.

Here is my version of the recipe.  Tip, use the freshest eggs you can get.

one egg plus one egg yolk (at room temperature)

1 tsp prepared hot mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp whey

put into a blender and blend.  Once it is well mixed, drizzle in your oil.

As far as oil goes, there are a variety of different ones you can use.  Basically you want a mild flavoured oil.  Traditional olive oil tends to be too strong, but canola, sunflower, safflower etc would work nicely.  While in the grocery store this week, I did stumble on "Light in flavour" olive oil...  So I decided to go with that.

You want to drizzle as slow as possible.  Apparently some blenders have attachments that do this for you...  mine, does not, so I just poured it as slowly as possible from a measuring cup.

3/4 cup oil

It does get messy, spots start to splatter out of the top, but I just stuck my hand over top as I drizzled to minimize the cleanup.

Once the whole batch has emulsified (gotten thick and white), pour into a clean mason jar and close the lid tightly.  This is the part where it gets scary.  Leave it on the counter for 7 hours. 

Here is a hint... don't start this at 6pm.  I didn't read the whole recipe before starting, so I was up till after midnight waiting to put it in the fridge. *YAWN*

Apparently this stuff will last a good 2-3 weeks in the fridge.