mayonnaise???

[kareina]

I had an e-mail from my mother today, in which she mentioned having made potato salad for the 4th of July bbq she is hosting. This got me hungry for potato salad, a dish I love when made with ingredients I enjoy, but rarely get to eat because so many recipes contain vinegar, which I am convinced is one of the least pleasant tasting poisons known to man. Now that I'm hungry for potato salad I'd like to make some. However, the way mom taught me to make it one uses just enough mayonnaise to hold the boiled eggs and potatoes together. Given that I'm living alone, this means not many potatoes and not many eggs, which means not much mayo will be needed.

Given my aversion to vinegar and the fact that there exists no other way I've seen mayonnaise served that I was willing to eat it, logic says that I would like best a potato salad involving a home-made mayonnaise that uses lemon juice instead of vinegar. This gets me into a problem of supply--the recipes I've found on line all say that mayo takes about a cup of oil for one egg yolk. This is a lot of mayo--way more than I'd need to make a quantity of potato salad that I could finish before it went bad. It also says that fresh mayo won't keep longer than one week. Therefore I would need to either 1) find a way to make less mayo at once 2) accept the fact that most of it would be thrown away (this is a particularly difficult option for me--I try to only purchase what I am going to eat, and to eat everything I purchase, so that there is no food going to waste) or 3) find something else to do with that much fresh mayo.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions? (perhaps bake it into a cake or something? It would probably be too fatty to be good in a bread) I can't do this experiment till Monday at the soonest, since I don't have that much oil in the house anyway, since I am a butter user. I have a bit of olive oil because some couch surfers bought it and left it here. I've been using it for things like finishing wood working projects and adding in tiny quantities to my popcorn popper, and as a result a full year after they left the tiny bottle, it is nearly empty, so I have been thinking of buying a new bottle of some sort of oil to have on hand anyway. I'm not particularly fond of the taste of olive oil, and have been considering something like almond oil next time. How well would that work in a mayonnaise? In a popcorn popper? As a wood-finishing product? If anyone has a preferred oil they'd like to recommend and why, I'm happy to hear that, too.

Comments

[sismith42.livejournal.com]

what about making enough for your next gaming or sca thing, and having help in the eating?

[kareina.livejournal.com]

In this heat I wouldn't be willing to transport it across town. It takes an hour to get to the home of the other SCA family, and with our DM having moved to Edinburgh...

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

My first thought is halving the recipe. That way your loss is half an egg yolk rather than half a cup of mayo. (And half an egg yolk can be fed to a neighborhood kitty.)

[callistabee.livejournal.com]

Mayonnaise can be used to make cakes. This is just one of the recipes.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,236,157183-239202,00.html. According to a little web browsing, lemon juice can be used instead of vinegar.
Just for fun here are some other uses for mayo.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-some-uses-for-mayonnaise.htm

Have fun. It's funny. I got a craving for homemade potato salad today. Now, I will probably go shopping for the ingredients!

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Glad to have the cake idea seconded. Now, if it weren't so darn hot as to make turning on the oven unappealing...

Maybe use a smaller egg?

[father-michael.livejournal.com]

I don't know if they are available locally for you but the yolk of a quail egg would probably make a quarter cup or less of Mayo.

I don't suppose that was Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which seems to have much less olive taste than the cheaper verities? It comes from the first cold pressing of the olive.

Of course, now you have me Jonesing for potato salad too.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I've made mayo with one small egg yolk to one generous dollop of oil, less than 1/4 of a cup, and it was fine. Possibly a tiny bit eggier to taste, but nothing hideous. I often don't bother with any acid in my mayo, just add garlic or salt for taste instead. But lemon juice would be fine! And Mmmmmmm over steamed broccoli, especially the garlicky version!

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Good to know I don't *have* to use so much oil. The mayo in cake sounds like a good use for extra mayo, but in this heat baking isn't quite appealing...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

PS I've only ever used and will only ever use good extra virgin olive oil to make ... anything I was going to eat raw, actually. Round your way you can get small bottles of quality product at decent prices. Don't buy more than you will use in the next couple of months as it does go off.

[fighter-chick.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend using lemon juice in the mayo--the acid kills any bacteria that might be hanging around in the egg yolk. Also, lemony mayo tastes good! I don't love the taste of olive oil in mayo, so I use something more neutral like canola oil. Almond oil might work pretty well.

Homemade mayo lasts a week or so in the refrigerator. It makes tasty deviled eggs, cole slaw, sandwiches, sauce for artichokes, aioli.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll probably go with the almond oil, if I can find it.

[eithni.livejournal.com]

I actually saw a recipe using yogurt instead of mayo - it sounded like a good option to me.

Another cheapass cheater option would be to get a few mayo packets from a cafeteria, fast food joint or similar or borrow some from a neighbor.

(And happily I have some tater salad in the refrigerator...)

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I thought about yogurt, since I always keep that on hand for making naan or other baking needs. But I'm not so fond of the taste of yogurt that hasn't been baked into something--it has that hint of a sour taste. Sure, lemon juice is sour, too, but I'm hoping that making mayo would avoid whatever it is about the taste of fresh yogurt that doesn't quite appeal. (It isn't bad, like vinegar, just not my first choice in flavors). Come to think of it, using fresh, whipped cream would probably give me a taste I'd enjoy, too. hmmm...

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

My grandmother never used mayonaise in potato salad. She used seasoned sour cream for a dressing. Not exactly diet food, but the lady lived to be 96, so she must have known something!

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I've never liked sour cream. Fresh cream I love, sour cream, nope.

[merlyn-gabriel.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if you can get itin Italy but here a nice substitute would be quark ( no not the ferengi) its some version of cream not so sweet but creamy. It's nice stuff if you can find it, sadly I haveno idea what it is called in English.

[helena-br.livejournal.com]

My mother swears by grape seed oil.

Greek Yoghurt can be used in the place of mayo. Not sure what it would be called around there. Since I am allergic to eggs I have tried a lot of things as substitutes for mayo. Cream cheese also makes a decent alternative. Cream or sour cream added to taste to thin it out a bit.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Grape seed? Really? I had been thinking in terms of oils made from things I enjoy eating. Somehow grape seeds don't sound all that appetizing.

[vesta-aurelia.livejournal.com]

grape seed oil is really mostly taste-less. I have some that I use for skin care base oil and it's a really good "neutral" -- doesn't affect other scents either.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

What language is "quark"? Might be possible to find a translation if I know. Granted, I'd need to know what it is called in Italian to find out if it is available here...