My Mayo Will Make Your Mayo Sad. With Sadness.

I've had problems with mayonnaise. For years I did just what Julia Child told me and no problems. Then I moved and because of stuff I didn't have space for my blender. Now I can't follow JC's instructions. I know there are many ways to make mayo, and I have been told that the food processor works just fine. I beg to differ. I tried making an herbed mayo sauce and it split and I added an egg and tried again and it still split and I just threw it out. 

Things that make mayo:

Whisks
Blenders
Stick Blenders

I'm now using my stick blender, it works great, just use a small bowl. 

I was talking with some chefy type people and they were saying they have trouble getting their mayo not to split and I asked if they were measuring their oil. They were. This is fine, if you also measure your egg yolk. Eggs are not exactly the same and they vary from chicken to chicken and egg to egg. This means that you can't say two yolks to a cup of oil and have mayo come out. I actually have no idea what the ratio is supposed to be, I do it like JC said to, I add oil until it's done. So, if you want to measure, look up the amount of yolk you should have to oil, come on, it's the future, and you can go dance in the field. 

Today, I decided to pasteurize some eggs, as my theory is that the mayo will be good for longer. Sous vide, not hard, you poach them at like 135 or so for about 2 hours. While this was going on, I decided that I would make an infused oil. Infused oils cook for about an hour around 120-130 so I figured this was fine. 

Real quick, let's talk food safety. It's not something to sniff at. Listen up. Raw eggs can be dangerous to some people. And that information is private to those people (age, medical conditions, ect.), so you don't know who they are. I mean you might, if you look at that 2 year old and then offer him a deviled egg you made with your own mayo and then think, huh. If you plan to serve your homemade egg based salad dressing or mayo, pasteurize your eggs. Also, when you make oil infusions there is the chance that you can get botulism from them. You know the stories for people who died from eating the beans? That's not messing around. So, minimize risk. Wash your herbs and dry them (you know, oil doesn't get along with water), garlic needs to be used with caution and the result not kept around for long periods of time, or frozen; keep in the fridge. That being said I've made non sous vide oils with low heat before from fresh herbs and had no problems. I'm not having problems now. I don't want to scare you, I want you to be cautious. I blanch my garlic before use, and you should too, also it makes it easy to peel. 

Between these two things I have made a topping for my various foods (I like a Mexi egg omelette in the morning and this will keep me from wishing I had sour cream).

So let's get to it. 

You can tell he's pasteurized because he's marked. 

Sous Vide Pasteurized Eggs

Follow your sous vide instructions and heat the thing up to 135 and set the timer for 2 hours. Add the eggs in the shell. I put mine in a little bag with some water around them and attached them to the edge of the pot to make them easy to pull out. Remove, ice bath, mark. 

The Most Mexican Spiced Mayo

3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 jalapeno, diced
1/3 bunch cilantro chopped (stems too)
3 tsp Mexican oregano
2 tsp Ground cumin (I didn't have it but whole cumin is better just toast it in a pan first)
About 1/3-1/2 cup avocado oil

Avocado oil
1 lime
1 tsp the plainest mustard you can get
salt
1 pasteurized egg

Put the garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, oregano and cumin in a bag suited for sous viding. I use seal a meal for these as you don't want ANY air in the bag. Add the spices and oil, shake everything to the bottom and seal.

In the same pot as the eggs add your packet at the last  hour of cooking. Make sure it's submerged, I use magnets. 

When time's up remove and set aside while you fuss with the eggs. 

Open and pour into a fine sieve over a bowl and press the remains to get all the oil. Throw out the remnants. 

The Mayo

Depending on how you are doing it, you might need to adjust the instructions. I will give them for a stick blender. 

In a small bowl put your pasteurized egg, the juice of 1/2 - 1 lime (it depends on the size, my lime was huge and I ended up making more mayo than I wanted, looking for about 1 Tbs, 2 Tbs if you want it more like an aioli), a little salt and mustard in the bowl. Add about 2 Tbs of oil and start blending. In a slow steady stream add the flavored oil until you are out. Those little bits at the bottom, add those too. Add avocado oil until it turns into mayo. You can tell because it's not foamy and it gets a little thicker. Just stop and check it, does it feel like mayo? Remember that your mayo will firm up in the fridge a bit.  Also homemade mayo is thinner than commercial mayo. It also has less calories.

Now make me a sandwich! And don't skimp on the mayo.