When I was pregnant, I craved Granny Smith apples. One day I arrived at my office, put a Granny Smith apple on my desk and burst into tears. “That fancy Lexington Avenue market had the nerve to charge me $1.39 for a single apple!” I sobbed to my concerned colleagues. “It’s outrageous! But I HAD to have it.” Talk about hormones.
Although I don’t often cry over high prices, or succumb to them, I’m annoyed when I see a pricetag that goes beyond exhorbitant. Like last week at William Sonoma when I saw this jar of mayonnaise for $14.95. What precious rare ingredients could be in it? Vegetable oil, egg, lemon juice, salt, vinegar…..wow. I was out of mayo at the time, but definitely wasn’t that desperate.
The anger drove me to my cookbooks, where I got the basic formula for mayo, and threw the ingredients into the food processor.
1 egg
1 t. mustard
1 t. salt
1 T. vinegar
1 ½ c. vegetable oil
Pulse all ingredients except the oil in a food processor until smooth and combined. In a slow stream, while the processor is running, add the oil until the mixture is thick, light colored, and holds it’s shape.
These are just the basics, of course. It could easily be upgraded by using premium ingredients like a fresh chicken egg, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, fresh lemon juice, or extra virgin olive oil. You could add chopped herbs, horseradish, or maybe a little truffle oil. Even then, I don’t think that would bring the retail price much above $2.99, do you? How would you doctor up some homemade mayonnaise?
9 comments:
Looks great, let me know how long shelf life is
Whoa, $15 for marvelous mayo? That's a colossal crime! I'd go without before I paid that, but I guess someone is paying. Prices will go as high as people will pay :/
Wow, I'd definitely do without before paying $15 for a jar of mayo! Yours looks great!
Blessings,
Lorilee
That is totally insane to charge that much for mayonnaise. I've never made homemade mayo, but I bet it tastes good!
I've never made mayo from scratch but that does look delicious. I bet its good with a fresh egg!
I think the first question I have is--why are you doing your grocery shopping at William Sonoma?
I have no problem paying a lot more for something organic or locally made especially if it's labor intensive but I can't figure out why this mayo costs that much and definitely wouldn't pay for it either!
Very inspiring. What about a drop or two of soy sauce? Or a sprinkle of cayenne pepper?
if they would give it for free to me, i wouldn't take any mayonnaise from a store. in order to last so long on the shelves, they add all kind of chemicals. so, thank you, but no, thank you. i make my own.
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