HELLMAN'S OR BEST FOODS MAYONNAISE (COPY CAT)

Steps:

• 1. One day in France in 1756, when Duke de Richelieus chef couldn't find any cream for a sauce made with eggs and cream, he substituted oil. The thick emulsion that formed after a vigorous beating became one of the basic sauces for our modern cuisine. A version of this simple culinary breakthrough was an important ingredient for Richard Hellmann's salads in the deli he opened in New York City in 1905. When Richard started selling his mayonnaise by the jar at the deli, the bottles flew out the door. Before long Hellmann's creamy mayonnaise dominated in the eastern United States, while another company, Best Foods, was having incredible sales success with mayonnaise west of the Rockies. In 1932 Best Foods bought Hellmann's, and today the two brands split the country: Best Foods is sold west of the Rockies and Hellmann's can be found to the east. Nowadays the two mayonnaise recipes are nearly identical, although some people claim that Best Foods mayonnaise is a little tangier. In this clone recipe you'll be creating an emulsion by whisking a stream of oil into a beaten egg yolk. The solution will begin to magically thicken and change color, and before you know it you'll be looking at a bowl of beautiful, off-white, fresh mayonnaise. I've found the best way to add the oil to the egg yolk a little bit at a time while whisking is to pour the oil into a plastic squirt bottle like the kind used for ketchup or mustard. This will allow you to whisk continuously with one hand while squirting oil with the other. You can also use a measuring cup with a spout and pour the oil in a thin stream.
• 2. Whisk the egg yolk by hand for 15 seconds.
• 3. Combine the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and lemon juice in a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Add half of this solution to the egg yolk and whisk for another 15 seconds.
• 4. Pour the oil into a plastic squirt bottle or a spouted measuring cup. Add a few drops of oil into the yolk and whisk, and continue to add oil a little bit at a time while whisking non-stop. When you have used about half of the oil, your mayonnaise should be very thick. Add the remaining vinegar solution. Whisk some more. Now you can add the remaining oil in a steady stream while whisking until all of the oil has been added. Your mayonnaise should be thick and off-white in color when it's done.
• 5. Put the mayonnaise into an old mayonnaise jar and seal it with a lid. Keep up to 2 weeks in your refrigerator. Yield: 1 cup I got this recipe from: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/ Sorry I couldn't get a pic yet! Though I've made it twice!
• 6. Notes: Some people are skeeved out by using raw egg yolk in a sauce like this, even though the risk of salmonella poisoning from fresh eggs is very low and the vinegar used in the recipe helps to kill any potentially harmful bacteria. Nevertheless, if you are concerned, you can buy eggs that have been heat-treated (pasteurized) in the shell. They are probably going to be a little more expensive.