Eating better corresponds with knowing WHAT you’re eating…and that leads to making as many things as you can from scratch. ‘Cause if I can’t read the ingredients list, I don’t want to eat it! For our first Whole30, I decided to go all in. I was gonna do this thing and do it big. I wanted to make compliant salad dressing. And since my husband LOVES ranch, that meant making homemade mayo.
Mayo round one…wrong oil
Reading the directions in the Whole30 book, it sounded so easy. I can do this, I thought. So, I did…and it was a dismal failure. This was NOT mayo! I might have tried to use it in an oil and vinegar dressing, but it just looked so awful. Then I discovered the recipe called for LIGHT olive oil. Well, there’s the problem…I had used the regular Extra Virgin olive oil so it was kind of green and very strong in flavor.
Mayo round two…right oil: still failed
Jump back on that horse, I thought…and tried again with the light olive oil. Nope…just as dismal…what in the world. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through 30 days without a salad dressing I could actually eat. I tried some of the compliant commercial brands but just didn’t like the flavor. Plus, I wanted to make chicken salad and egg salad! I was gonna have to conquer this.
So, I got on the FB group and shared my failure…and one sweet lady quickly replied. “Are you mixing it with an emulsion blender in something tall?” she asked. WHAT??? Well, I was using an emulsion blender but in a bowl. Suddenly I remembered a special pottery piece I had inherited from my grandmother that was specifically for whipping egg whites into meringue. It was taller and much skinnier than a bowl…and now perfect for emulsion blending. Could this be the answer?
Homemade mayo round three…success!
You guessed it. I had to try again. And to my complete amazement, it worked!!! It immediately changed to white and thickened as I added the rest of the oil bit by bit. Then when I added the lemon juice, it broke down to liquid again, and I was dismayed. BUT it set right back up as I stirred, thicker than ever…beautiful, thick white mayonnaise that I made myself. Turns out just like egg whites, the oil needs to spin faster, and the best way to accomplish this is to blend it in a more confined space. And I love that I have this treasure from my grandmother that now gets “loved” almost every week.
Homemade mayo is one of my favorite accomplishments on my journey to making so many things homemade rather than store bought. You’ve got to try this even if you only do it once so you can experience the amazement (here’s the recipe). And a trivia bonus for you…did you know mayonnaise includes mustard powder??? Just find that funny…the things you learn!
I’ve actually had many more successes than failures…thankfully! What’s you biggest “fail?” What’s your greatest surprise success? Share in the comments below!
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