Since a couple people expressed interest, here's the recipe/technique for making Mayonnaise. If you don't want to know way too much about mayo, skip this entirely. Here we go.
First, forget everything you've ever heard about it. If you look online, you'll read that it's difficult, time consuming, and can not possibly be done with kitchen appliances, but only works by hand. All of these things are nonsense. I make mine in 15 min. with my stand mixer, but a hand-mixer would do just as well.
I use a modified version of Alton Brown's recipe. I doubled everything and then doubled the egg yolk again. Here it is, after my mods (so don't double this!):
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon sugar
4 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (or the stuff in the jar is just as good)
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 cup oil, safflower or corn (or whatever - see below)
Notes on the ingredients:
I've made this with grocery store "large" eggs, and four yolks is just right. If your hens lay giant eggs, use three.
You can use coarse kosher salt (I do) but if you do, put it in the bowl first to give it the maximum time to dissolve.
If you don't have dry mustard in the pantry, you can use the regular stuff in the squeeze bottle.
Feel free to leave out the sugar, some people like it better that way, some don't.
I've used fresh lemon juice, I've used the jar kind, and I couldn't tell a difference. Maybe you can, do what you like.
White wine vinegar is the most "traditional" in the French cooking sense. Hellman's uses plain old white vinegar, cause it's cheap. I use rice wine vinegar because I like the very subtle flavor it adds. Feel free to experiment, but I can tell you from personal experience, do not use ACV. It was nasty.
You can use almost any oil you like. If you use corn or canola oil, you'll get pretty standard mayo. If you use extra virgin olive oil, the flavor of the oil comes through in spades, which is great for some uses but unpleasant for others. If you melt a pound of butter and let it cool back down to where it almost but not quite solidifies, you'll make hollandaise.
Along with these things, the mayo will support a fair bit of flavoring, as long as it doesn't overwhelm the liquid balance. One of my favorites is to use olive oil and 1 tablespoon of garlic powder (added with the mustard) and one teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper. I've also done a garlic/dill mayo that's outstanding on ham/swiss/rye.
The most important thing about using an appliance is to have the beaters and the bowl sized correctly. Mayo is an emulsion, and in order for it to come together, the entire body of mayo has to be beaten pretty much constantly from beginning to end. I have a Sunbeam stand mixer that has two bowls, and the bowl tray slides over depending on which one you're using. I use the regular beaters with the small bowl and it comes out just fine. If your stand mixer is a Kitchen Aid 6-quart bolt-down paddle-beater behemoth, not only am I jealous, but also it won't work for mayo. A blender or food processor won't do it either, because when the mayo starts to thicken, it won't turn over in the bowl fast enough to keep the emulsion alive. My stand mixer works because the beaters take up more than half of the bowl, get really close to the sides and bottom, and the bowl spins while I'm working. If your stand mixer won't do that, the only alternative is a hand mixer with a whisk attachment. You'll be using the highest speed pretty much the whole time, and rotating the whisk around the bowl constantly to keep all parts of the mayo moving. You want a big enough bowl to hold a pint and a half of mayo, but small enough so that when you run the whisk around the sides, it almost overlaps itself in the center. You might end up trying a few until you find what works best for you.
The other piece of equipment that really helps is some kind of plastic bottle, at least 2 cups capacity, with a restricted pouring nozzle. I use a 17oz Sriracha bottle. Failing that, a measuring cup with a pretty aggressive pouring lip works well too, although it gets a bit heavy toward the end. You want to be able to pour the oil in a thin, controlled stream, and a squeeze bottle does a really great job.
Okay, so here's the technique:
Drop the egg yolks in the bowl, add everything but the oil, and get the mixer going on high. You want to aerate the yolks a bit; it helps them emulsify everything else.
Now, while your mixer is on the highest setting and running around the bowl, start adding the oil. At first, just add a few drops, and beat it in, then a few more, and beat it in more. You want a good eight seconds of beating between adding drops. After a minute or two of this, you'll see the yolk mixture start to lighten.
At this point you can start adding the oil in a more constant stream. What you want to watch for is that the oil is blending in smoothly, and not accumulating anywhere. If it starts to puddle up, stop adding oil and keep beating until it's all blended, then add more, but a little slower. The farther you get into it, the more forgiving it is, but a steady stream about half a pencil wide is what you're after.
Oil and beat, oil and beat. The mayo will gradually grow in bulk and body and lighten in color. Depending on your additions, it can be very white, but mine is usually slightly yellow.
Once all of the oil is in, keep beating the mayo for another minute or so. This helps to make sure everything is emulsified and adds just a little bit more air, which helps the texture.
Leave it in the bowl for at least ten minutes. Then jar it up and put it in the fridge. It should stay good for a month.
Oh, and now, a warning. Once you do this, you'll never buy the stuff in the store again. ;-)
we have white leghorns, NHR, Australorps, EE and a couple turkeys. I am pretty new at this too, but this website is a wealth of information. Welcome
