Me and emulsions aren’t friends. When I was in culinary school, Hollandaise sauce was my enemy. Trying to leave the past in the past, I attempted making homemade mayonnaise and I think I am confident when I say that: I will never make homemade mayonnaise again. There, I said it. Having read how rewarding this adventure is, and soooo many people calling their versions “Fool proof” and “Easy.” BAH! Lies!! ::shakes fist::
It took me about an hour, three dirty bowls, one dirty electric hand mixer, whisk, food processor, and 5 eggs later I finally achieved this quest. Savory Notes isn’t a website that features only successes you know, I like to showcase failures as well. There’s something that irks me about happy, peppy, perfect blogs… they don’t feel real. This blog is about as real as it gets.
Anyway, my final verdict on the subject? Make it once, so you can say you did it, but otherwise JUST BUY IT FROM THE GROCERY STORE. Now, I can feel your angry glares but don’t be upset, if you know how to read a label, there’s nothing wrong with buying store bought mayonnaise. There are a lot of quality brands out there (Best Foods/Hellmans being my fav) that have wholesome ingredients. The BF is the king of sandwich crafting, and he always surprises me with what he can do with regular ol’ mayonnaise. He always mixing in something, like garlic, basil, cumin, cracked pepper… So store bought mayo is never boring. From one jar, can come many varieties.
This recipe was based on Alton Brown’s mayonnaise, but I turned it into more of an aioli with the addition of garlic, and substituting extra virgin olive oil for vegetable. The extra virgin olive oil gave the mayo a glorious golden color, so pretty 
So, here we go. Here is my mayo recipe:
If this happens to you, don’t cry:
That is called broken. A whole bowl of a broken emulsion. That ^ there, happened to me three times until I read on Just Hungry that it can be saved!! What causes your emulsion to break? Adding too much oil at once. Even if you’re following the rules, and you decide to squeeze just a little bit more, because you think it’ll be ok, it’ll break! Hence the CAPS and bold to emphasize the importance of DROP BY DROP.
But this is an easy fix: simply take out a second bowl, and get a new egg yolk and start whisking, and then add your bowl-of-broken-sadness to it, one spoonful at a time. It’ll all come back together, and you can finish your bottle of oil, again, DROP BY DROP.
And viola!
It was thick, creamy, tangy, and had a great heavy, buttery olive flavor. I will admit, the mouth feel of homemade mayo is fluffier, dreamier and creamier than store bought, and you feel good because you made it all by yourself; but at the end of the day, when I reach my hand into my fridge to grab a jar of mayo, my heart wont break if it’s a store bought mayonnaise.
