Mayonnaise

[Xonax]

Hellman´s, Best Food´s and Kraft all produce the real stuff, and they more or less taste the same way. Make sure that there is written "Real Mayonnaise" on the package, or you will end up with something you will not like. Way cheaper to buy mayonnaise in plastic bags, but then more difficult to keep and use.

[Jingthing]

Villa sells HAIN (US) brand real mayo made with safflower oil. Not too expensive. Worth trying?

[IAMSOBAD]

Tesco brand is great when they have it in stock.

And much cheaper.

Hellmans Best Foods is good.

[Semper]

manarak

I am looking for mayonnaise made from egg yolk, oil (preferably olive oil), and vinegar or lemon juice, a hint of mustard would be nice too.

You obviously know what ingredients to use. Why not make it yourself? Can't be to difficult. It might turn out to be a hit, and you can give samples too your neighbours.

Edited August 18, 2011 by Semper

[manarak]

manarak

I am looking for mayonnaise made from egg yolk, oil (preferably olive oil), and vinegar or lemon juice, a hint of mustard would be nice too.

You obviously know what ingredients to use. Why not make it yourself? Can't be to difficult. It might turn out to be a hit, and you can give samples too your neighbours.

'can't be too difficult'

well, there is a moment of optimal emulsification between the oil and egg yolk that you better not miss.

the problem is that I use only few mayonnaise at a time, and it is almost impossible for me to make it in such small quantity.

And I don't think I will become very rich by selling small mayo pots at 200 baht a pot which you can't keep in the fridge for very much longer than 2-3 days, LOL.

This being said, you should try my Béarnaise.

This is best served with grilled T-Bone or Rib Eye steaks, done rare.

I remember a desolating story that took place some years ago on a cruise ship on the Adriatic. My friend and I spotted on the menu "Entrecôte à la Francaise with Béarnaise". I love that taste.

I asked the waiter if they really had Béarnaise, and he answered "yes, the chef makes it himself".

Well, our orders came, the entrecôte looked rather average (barely) the fries were on the same level and the broccoli was what broccoli usually is unless eaten raw: inedible.

And there were small pots/dips filled with a whitish paste, rather liquid, looking more like industrial salad cream. I probed it with my fork, and it tasted like very mad mayo, but more sour.

So I asked the waiter what that was and if he forgot the Béarnaise. Irritated, the Greek (the crew was mainly Greek) explained that this was Béarnaise.

So I said that this is in no way Béarnaise.

He insisted, me too.

I asked him about if he knew the ingredients of sauce Béarnaise, he admitted he did not and offered to call the chef, to which I agreed.

3 white-clad more useless Greeks came to the table, one seeming to be the leader of these culinarian hooligans, and he could spurt out some words of English.

He asked if there was something wrong with the Béarnaise, to which I answered I don't know because I am still waiting on it.

He told the same thing as the waiter, and I asked the same question about the ingredients.

"well, tzis mayoness mix wiz vingrrr"

Me: facepalm

My friend: bonks his head on the table

I tried to explain how to make Béarnaise to these idiots:

- first you cut/mince red onions or shallots in small pieces and soak them with vinegar - just enough that the shallots are bathing in it. Any vinegar will do, even cheap white ones. Some also add white wine with the vinegar, I tried that too, but I failed to taste a real difference, so I do without the wine.

- heat/simmer the pot with the shallots and the vinegar. the shallots must not burn or become brown, but you simmer them until 90% of the vinegar has evaporated. Optional: add shards of black pepper and some add tarragon at this point. While I see the influence of the pepper, the Tarragon seems useless to me, because its aroma will be killed by the heat.

- mix eggyolk with the shallots

- take butter (salted butter works best, but you can also use regular butter and add salt, but under no circumstances use butter ersatz, like low-fat butter, light butter, margarine and other soya-based forgeries, because these alter the taste of the final product greatly).

- melt the butter in a pot

- add some water (just some teaspoons) and gently heat the eggyolk while keeping it constantly in movement (caution - this is very delicate to do, because it must not begin cook/solidify - they do at approx. 76°C and at approx. 90°C if vinegar is added, so I mix the shallots with the eggyolk before heating, I have less risks to botch the job). The recommended tool for that is to use a 'bain-marie', i.e. heat up water in a larger pot and put the other pot inside, the second pot getting warmed by the water in the first one, this makes for very smooth heat.

I manage to do it without bain-marie (and on an electric stove!!!), but it requires me to constantly keep the eggyolk in motion to spread the excessive heat.

- progressively add butter from the other pot while stirring rather quickly the eggyolks. You can add quickly at the beginning, but be careful that the butter forms a nice emulsion with the eggyolks. Continue to slowly add butter until the sauce solidifies enough to briefly hold your spoon upright in the pot. Add no more butter then as it will destroy the emulsion.

- taste the sauce. add salt if required, I always add a bit of sugar because it rounds the taste nicely.

- at the end, add terragon, and optionally chervil and black pepper.

When I had ended my explanation, the cooks (or should I say 'food heater-ups' or microwave operators) looked severely pissed off.

In typical Greek manner the leader still maintained that Béarnaise is mayo+vinegar and that's the way he learned it.

I said for the price of almost 50 EUR a plate I was expecting him to open his cookbook instead of telling bullshit.

Needless to say, no tip.

Edited August 19, 2011 by manarak

[raro]

...wonderful story!

Here's one from a hotel in Roi Et: The cream of tomato soup arrives and it tastes VERY odd. I also let the chef come and ask him for his secret recipe....he added Vanilla Cream to it....

[Phil Conners]

I would probably be quite polite to cooks and waiters on a cruise ship, knowing that I'd have to eat there for the duration of the trip. You never know what condiments upset staff might add to your dinner.

[ableguy]

Makro sells Hellman's (Best) Mayo just the same as US type. You must look at the ingredients to make sure that there is no sugar. The mayo is sold in 1 liter plastic bags. Many different types so like I said check the ingredients. We always just snip off a small part of the corner and use it as a squeeze container. Works well.

Big C sell Kuipee (sp?) brand which is also very good but more expensive. Again check the label as there may be more than one type as the Thais apparently like the sugar kind. This comes in a smaller plastic squeeze container packed in a plastic bag.

agree with your Mackro comment , taste great we simply squeeze it into a couple of jars.

[ableguy]

manarak

I am looking for mayonnaise made from egg yolk, oil (preferably olive oil), and vinegar or lemon juice, a hint of mustard would be nice too.

You obviously know what ingredients to use. Why not make it yourself? Can't be to difficult. It might turn out to be a hit, and you can give samples too your neighbours.

This is an easy way to make ones self very ill unless you use your own very fresh eggs.

[Phil Conners]

manarak

I am looking for mayonnaise made from egg yolk, oil (preferably olive oil), and vinegar or lemon juice, a hint of mustard would be nice too.

You obviously know what ingredients to use. Why not make it yourself? Can't be to difficult. It might turn out to be a hit, and you can give samples too your neighbours.

This is an easy way to make ones self very ill unless you use your own very fresh eggs.

In theory yes, but I've made my own mayo for 10 years here in Thailand, using whatever eggs I had, whether from a supermarket, 7 or the local market. Never had a problem so far.

[manarak]

I would probably be quite polite to cooks and waiters on a cruise ship, knowing that I'd have to eat there for the duration of the trip. You never know what condiments upset staff might add to your dinner.

Luckily, there were 3 or 4 restaurants on the ship.

All of them were unrecommendable, so we just ate stuff from the buffet self-service for the remainder of the trip.

[janverbeem]

Hellman´s, Best Food´s and Kraft all produce the real stuff, and they more or less taste the same way. Make sure that there is written "Real Mayonnaise" on the package, or you will end up with something you will not like. Way cheaper to buy mayonnaise in plastic bags, but then more difficult to keep and use.

The " real mayonaise" from Bestfoods and Kraft have both more than 3% sugar inside,according to the list of ingredients written on the package.