Homemade mayo

I have been planning on making this mayonnaise recipe for a very long time now. It's from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. I've been trying to avoid soy as much as possible (though it's in virtually everything...disgusting), because of its estrogenic effects. Most mayo (think Best Foods or Kraft or any store brand) is made from soy oil. There are quite a few olive oil and canola oil ones on the market now, but I think they taste weird--reminiscent of Miracle Whip, which I hate--and they're expensive.

The Sally Fallon recipe calls for olive oil, but she says that if you find the olive oil taste too strong, that sunflower oil is a good substitute. A couple months back, I finally remembered to order sunflower oil from Azure; this bottle was $6.65 from Azure and I believe it was $11.99 at Fred Meyer's, which is why I kept waiting to order it from Azure!

And...it took me two months to finally make the mayo. The only reason it finally got done was due to my being incredibly antsy and anxious on Monday before our ultrasound--I always get nervous before any of these appointments, even my monthly meet-up with our midwives, like magically the baby inside me will have disappeared or something. Cleaning and cooking take care of my nervous energy

Anyhow, the mayo finally got made and I am so glad it did because it is the best mayonnaise I have ever tasted. And now when Danny and Isaac peel their mayo slathered bread off their sandwiches and eat it plain, I'm not cringing thinking about soy and they're not complaining of the taste. And it took a whole, oh, ten minutes, maybe. I can't wait for Chris to taste it, it hasn't passed his test yet, but I'm pretty certain it will :)

The recipe:

• 1 whole egg, at room temperature
• 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 tsp of dijon-style mustard
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (I used store bought, but will squeeze my own in the future)
• 1 Tbsp whey (optional; I'll talk about it below)
• 3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller pressed sunflower oil, or a combination (I did 1/2 c. of each)
• generous pinch of sea salt

In your food processor, place all ingredients except the oils; process until well blended, about 30 seconds.

Slowly stream in oils with the motor running, until thickened and well incorporated. Taste and check seasonings. You my need more salt and/or lemon juice.

Isn't it pretty and yellow? I had to place it on something white to show the effect from the nice pastured eggs we get. It's almost as yellow as our butter (which was surprising--the Organic Valley butter was on sale at Fred Meyer's and is so bright and pretty; their package says it's pasture fed, so I guess they're telling the truth).

The addition of whey gives a bit of a "fermented" spin to the mayo, adding beneficial enzymes and increasing nutrient content. It also stretches the shelf life from about two weeks to several months! Whey is super easy to make, too: simply purchase a quart of yogurt (preferably as fresh as possible), line a fine mesh sieve with cheesecloth and let the whey drip out, at room temperature (or the fridge is fine, too, if that grosses you out), into a glass container, for about 24 hours. Make sure and cover the whole thing if it's out on the counter so that flies can't get into it. Give it a good, gentle squeeze to get any residual whey. The leftover yogurt is often called "yogurt cheese" and can be used in a plethora of ways (cream cheese substitute is what we've mostly done). I've found the yogurt cheese to only keep for a couple weeks; the whey however will last several months, and can be used in other fermenting recipes. Sally Fallon has a lot more info in her book; the Laurel's Kitchen books also have recipes to use yogurt cheese.

Happy sandwiches!