Making your own mayonnaise can be very rewarding. It lets you use your own healthy oils, is free of preservatives and forms the basis for all thick salad dressings. Plus it's almost like magic when you are able to combine two watery substances together into a thick mixture without cooking them.
Mayonnaise is basically an emulsification of raw egg, water (or vinegar), oil and spices. But when you mix all those ingredients together you normally wind up with a gooey mess. The trick to making it is mixing it in such a way that it becomes emulsified into beautiful thick mayonnaise. To do this successfully is more of an art than a process which is so delicate that superstitions have developed over generations that a batch will fail if it is made with someone in the room with the wrong vibe. It has almost become a religion.
I've made hundreds of batches of mayo and I've done it successfully for so long that hardly any of my batches ever fail but when I first started making it I had a hell of a time getting it to emulsify. Forget about making it by hand or even in a food processor. That is for experts. The trick I've learned is to use a stick mixer but even that often led to "mayo fail".
To sum up the tricks I know into one paragraph: Use a stick mixer. Find a tall thin jar, just big enough to get the stick mixer in. Crack the egg yolk into the bottom of the jar, add your oil and little water or vinegar and wait about fifteen minutes for the temperatures of the oil and egg to equalize before mixing; don't forget the water at this stage. If you wait to add the water after you start mixing it will be too late and no matter how long you mix it will not thicken into an emulsification. Hold the stick mixer over the egg yolk and begin with slow pulsating mixes. Do not move it! Start with tiny slow bursts and make them longer once you see mayo beginning to form at the bottom of the jar. Once that happens you can hold the trigger on the mixer continuously but do not move it from the bottom of the jar till you see a glob of thick mayo form. Once that happens slowly rock the mixer and pull it up ever so slightly to see if you can feel the thickness sticking the mixer to the jar. Once that happens slowly pull the mixer up and down a little at a time, increasing it as it thickens till you go all the way to the top. After that you can add spices and more water or vinegar or whatever you want.
Hopefully this video will be of more help to anyone desiring to make their own home made mayonnaise. Good luck!
She makes it look so simple but really it's not. Well it is but it's kind of like riding a bicycle. Don't give up if you fail. Don't forget to let the temperatures of all the ingredients equalize and don't forget to add a little water or vinegar before you start mixing! (you can ignore this step if all your ingredients have already been sitting out on the counter.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwz6jknw574
