Last week I made some homemade mayonnaise, which, if you don’t know, contains egg yolk, vinegar, lemon juice, and oil all mixed together. It’s actually quite tiring to make as you’ve got to whisk very fast in order to get the whole thing to mix together. You’re basically making two things that don’t want to stay together, oil and water, stay together. Luckily with some elbow grease and the egg yolk to act as an emulsifier (it contains lecithin, the magic emulsifying ingredient), the mixture will stay together indefinitely, unlike, say, a vinaigrette dressing.

The outcome was really great mayo. The only down side is that it makes about a cup, and only lasts about a week. So I had to figure out ways to use up all that mayo…. I choose egg salad and crab cakes. Next time, I think I’ll make some french onion dip or potato salad. Unfortunately, the store bought stuff lasts forever (how do they do that?), so I probably won’t be making my own very often.

And for those attentive enough, yes, this is made from raw egg yolk. And yes, you could get salmonella, even though the chances are extremely small. You can avoid the issue all together with pasteurized eggs, and that’s what I do. Pasteurized eggs are great… you can eat raw or undercooked eggs without the fear of getting sick. This means cookie dough, sunny side up eggs, ice cream, meringue, and yes, mayo. I’ve been able to readily find pasteurized eggs at both the Dominick’s and Jewel near me. They come in these yellow containers that you have to watch out for, or you might not see them.