Arts: You?re Doing It Wrong: Mayonnaise

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Brow Beat You're Doing It Wrong: Mayonnaise By L.V. Anderson Posted Wednesday, May 09, 2012, at 03:30 PM ET It's asparagus season—or Spargelzeit, as it's delightfully called in German. There's very little to be said about how to cook asparagus. Granted, you can roast it, stir-fry it, or bake it into a frittata. But when you have good, fresh asparagus on hand, the no-brainer thing to do is to steam it and serve it dipped in mayonnaise. And there's quite a bit more to be said about how to make mayonnaise than how to cook asparagus. Not to put too fine a point on it, but making mayonnaise is a pain in the ass. It takes several minutes of sustained, focused, persnickety work, and the threat of breakage (failure to emulsify) always looms: Even the best intentions and most earnest efforts sometimes result in a sour, eggy soup. But when it works—when the egg and oil magically transform into a thick, custardy sauce—homemade mayonnaise is the best dipping sauce for vegetables known to man. Since mayonnaise is an emulsion, and emulsions require serious force to stabilize, many cookbook authors recommend making it in a food processor. This is a great idea in theory. But making mayonnaise in a food processor is a mixed bag. Even if you add the oil through the tiny hole in the feed-tube plunger that exists for the sole purpose of making mayonnaise, you're still liable to end up with the aforementioned oily mess. And though I would love to possess the general competence and upper-body strength ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Dana Stevens: What It Was Like To Hang Out With Maurice Sendak Obesity Forecasters Think Nearly Half of America Will Be Fat by 2030. Are They Right? Things in Hollywood Don't Explode Anymore. They Implode.	Advertisement
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