How To Make Mayonnaise & Aioli

Mayonnaise is an emulsion, which is a fancy way of saying you are convincing a cup of oil to stay suspended in about a tablespoon of watery liquid instead of separating out of it. Egg yolk does the convincing. Get it right and you have something thick, glossy and pale that makes every sandwich you own better; get it wrong and you have a curdled bowl of oil, which is fixable and I will show you how. Fifteen minutes, no heat, no special skill, just a slow hand at the start.

Aioli is the same technique pointed at garlic. The traditional Provencal and Catalan version has no egg in it at all, only garlic and olive oil worked in a mortar, and it is harder. Most modern kitchens make a garlic mayonnaise and call it aioli. Both methods are below, and I will be clear about which is which.

Equipment

This is a recipe where the bowl matters more than it sounds like it should. You are whisking hard for several minutes while pouring with the other hand, so I use the Large Capacity Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl with Scale, set on a damp towel so it cannot skate across the counter, and the depth keeps the oil where the whisk can reach it rather than climbing the sides. A balloon whisk beats a fork here by a wide margin, because an emulsion forms by shearing oil into progressively smaller droplets and more wires means more shearing per stroke, so the Stainless Steel Whisk Egg Beater is doing real mechanical work rather than just stirring. For the traditional egg-free aioli you need the Enameled Cast Iron Mortar & Pestle Set, and there is no substitute: that emulsion is held together by garlic proteins crushed out against a rough surface, which a blade cannot do.

An immersion blender makes the egg-based version close to foolproof if you would rather not whisk. It is a legitimate route, not a cheat.

Ingredients

• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar, divided
• 1 cup neutral oil, grapeseed, canola or light olive
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 2 to 4 garlic cloves, grated to a paste with a pinch of salt, for aioli only

Ingredient Selection

The oil decides the flavor, because it is nearly the entire recipe by weight. Grapeseed and canola are neutral and let the lemon and mustard come through. Extra virgin olive oil is the traditional choice for aioli and a difficult one for mayonnaise: whisking drives its bitter compounds forward, so a full cup of a peppery oil can turn genuinely unpleasant. If you want olive oil flavor, use light olive oil, or cut a strong one with something neutral.

Dijon is not just seasoning. Mustard contains natural emulsifiers that help hold the sauce together, which is why it goes in at the start rather than at the end, and it is the reason a beginner's mayonnaise with mustard succeeds more often than one without.

On the egg: for anything served raw, the FDA's guidance is to use shell eggs that have been pasteurized or otherwise treated to destroy Salmonella, or a pasteurized egg product. That is worth following as a default rather than only when you are cooking for someone vulnerable.

Method

Mise en Place

1. Bring the yolk to room temperature and steady the bowl: Take the egg out 15 to 20 minutes ahead. A cold yolk emulsifies reluctantly. Set the bowl on a damp folded towel so both your hands are free, one for the whisk and one for the oil, and measure the oil into something you can pour from slowly.

Start the Base

1. Whisk the yolk, mustard and half the acid: Whisk the egg yolk, Dijon and half the lemon juice together for about 30 seconds, until the mixture pales and thickens slightly. If you are making aioli, whisk the garlic paste in now.

Build the Emulsion

1. Add the first quarter cup of oil drop by drop: Go slower than feels reasonable, whisking without stopping. This is where the emulsion is actually created, and rushing it is the cause of nearly every broken mayonnaise. You are looking for the mixture to stop looking like liquid and start looking like sauce.
2. Speed up once it holds: When it has visibly thickened and no longer threatens to separate, add the rest of the oil in a thin steady stream, still whisking continuously.

Season and Finish

1. Add the remaining acid and the salt: Whisk in the rest of the lemon juice and the salt, then taste. Acid brightens it and also loosens it slightly, so add it before deciding the texture is wrong.
2. Loosen if you need to, then refrigerate: If it is stiffer than you want, whisk in warm water a teaspoon at a time. Transfer to a clean airtight container and get it into the refrigerator straight away.

The Traditional Egg-Free Aioli

This is the older sauce and the harder one. Without a yolk there is no egg lecithin holding things together, only the proteins you crush out of the garlic, so it breaks more readily and it will not sit as long once made.

Pound 4 to 6 peeled garlic cloves with a generous pinch of coarse salt in the mortar until they are a smooth wet paste, which takes several minutes of steady work and is not a step to hurry. Then add olive oil literally one drop at a time, grinding in one consistent direction, until the paste turns pale and glossy and begins to thicken. Only then move to a very thin stream, still grinding, until you have worked in about 3/4 cup total. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and salt to taste. It is sharper, thicker and far more garlicky than the egg version, and it is best eaten the day it is made.

Serving and Application

Mayonnaise is a base as much as a condiment. It is the start of tartar sauce, remoulade and ranch, it binds potato salad and egg salad, and it is what makes a sandwich taste finished. Aioli goes with what the Mediterranean puts it with: poached salt cod, boiled vegetables, grilled bread, fries, and anything from the grill that wants a sharp garlic note against it.

Popular Variations

• Lemon-herb aioli: Stir lemon zest, chopped parsley and chives through the finished sauce.
• Chipotle aioli: Whisk in a minced chipotle in adobo with a little of its sauce for smoke and heat.
• Rouille: Steep a pinch of saffron in the lemon juice before you start, then proceed as normal. This is the classic accompaniment to bouillabaisse.
• Tartar sauce: Stir chopped capers, cornichons and a little of their brine into the finished mayonnaise.

When It Breaks, and How To Fix It

A broken mayonnaise looks curdled and greasy, with visible oil sitting loose. It is not ruined and you do not need to start over. Put a fresh yolk, or a tablespoon of warm water, into a clean bowl, then whisk the broken mixture into it a little at a time exactly as if it were the oil. It will come back together. The mistake to avoid is trying to fix it by whisking harder in the same bowl, which does nothing, because the problem is that there is more oil present than the emulsifier can hold, not that you stirred too gently.

Make Ahead, Storage and Reheating

Homemade mayonnaise is a raw-egg preparation, so it is refrigerated immediately and treated as perishable. Keep it in a clean airtight container at 40F or below and use it within 3 to 4 days, which is the same window the FDA applies to leftover egg dishes. It is never reheated, and it does not freeze; the emulsion separates on thawing and will not come back.

Traditional egg-free aioli is more fragile still, and it is worth making only as much as you are about to eat.

History

The origin of mayonnaise is contested and none of the competing stories is well documented. The most repeated one ties it to the French capture of Mahon on Menorca in 1756, with the sauce named for the port. Rival claims point to Bayonne, and to an older French word for egg yolk. These are explanations offered after the fact rather than records of an invention, and anyone telling you which is correct is picking a favorite.

Aioli is a different and older story, and it does not depend on mayonnaise at all. Garlic pounded with oil is a long-standing preparation across the northern Mediterranean, from Provence through Catalonia, and its egg-free form is the one that connects to that tradition. The garlic mayonnaise most restaurants now serve as aioli is a modern convenience, which is fine as long as nobody pretends it is the same thing.

Nutrition

An estimate, calculated ingredient by ingredient from USDA FoodData Central entries rather than measured in a lab. The figures cover the egg-based version, which makes about 1 1/8 cups, and they are given per tablespoon because that is how mayonnaise is actually used.

References

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration: What You Need to Know About Egg Safety
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Refrigeration and Food Safety

Related Guides

The warm cousin of this sauce is Classic Hollandaise, the same egg-yolk-and-fat emulsion held over heat instead of at room temperature, and learning one makes the other far less intimidating. Classic Béarnaise is where that same technique goes next, with tarragon and a vinegar reduction. And for where a good homemade mayonnaise actually earns its keep, Jumanji Sandwiches is built on it.

Thank You

Thanks for cooking through this one. If your first attempt breaks, I would rather hear about that than about the one that worked, because the fix is the part worth knowing. Drop me a note through the contact page. That closes out this batch of sauces, so tell me what you want next.

Chef Alan
Wine Drop Cookery
35 years, Six Four Diamond Awards