A Foodie Moment

Even foods we consider ordinary can surprise when they are prepared differently. Surprisingly, the preparation doesn’t need to be very different to make a difference.

A perfect example is scrambled eggs. In the past, my favorite way of making scrambled eggs was simply to crack the eggs over a pan and scramble them as they cooked. The result looks colorful, and the texture varied based on the combination of yolk and albumin (the clearer part of the egg).

Linda, my wife, would scramble them in a bowl before cooking them. Some folks may add a bit of milk as well, and over at IHOP, they add a bit of pancake batter (at least that’s what the menu suggested the last time I ate at an IHOP).

But a book I have been reading on and off – Harold McGee’s most excellent “On Food and Cooking – The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” (2nd edition) – suggests that chefs have known for centuries that adding a bit of acid to scrambled eggs makes them extraordinarily fluffy when cooked. In the voluminous chapter on all things “egg” in his book, McGee explains in depth the structure of proteins in egg yolks and albumin, as well as the impact that acid has on those proteins.

Even if you don’t care about the science involved, you can still benefit from McGee’s analysis. The next time you scramble up some eggs before cooking them, add a small squeeze of lemon juice or a bit of fruit juice or even vinegar – a quarter or half teaspoon will do. The amount of lemon juice or other liquid you add is so miniscule you cannot taste it, but the result will astound you – you will likely never have had eggs so fluffy.

And you will likely never go back to chewy or rubbery scrambled eggs again.

Julia Child was a huge fan of butter, and I wholeheartedly agree that butter is a foodie staple. However, in that same vein, I’m also a devotee of mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is an excellent condiment – just ask my Dutch friends who eat it liberally with “frites” (french fries), a habit I have now adopted as well.

Of the store bought varieties, I find Kraft and Hellman’s regular mayonnaise to be the best, while at the same time, I believe that low-fat mayonnaise is an abomination as it has the wrong flavor and consistency (and it has carbs to compensate for the reduction in fat).

However, my absolute favorite mayonnaise is home made. The only implement you need is a good blender. Personally, I’m a fan of Vita-Mix blenders.

The basic ingredients for a good home-made mayonnaise are egg yolks, salt, mustard, lemon juice, and oil. You can use olive oil, but unless I want a strongly flavored mayonnaise (tasting like olive oil), I tend to use nut oils like peanut or sunflower oil. As a general principle I stay away from corn oil and generic vegetable oils.

Place three or four egg yolks in the blender, along with a pinch of salt (sea salt preferred over iodized table salt), a teaspoon or so of Dijon mustard (although any mustard will do), and another teaspoon of lemon juice. On very low speed, blend those things together quickly (keep the lid on the blender because you will get spattering).

Once those four items have been blended together, with the blender still on, slowly dribble in the oil. Feel free to increase the blender speed a bit as you do this. As you continue dribbling in the oil, you’ll find that the mixture will start to thicken. Keep adding oil until you get the consistency you want for your mayonnaise. You don’t want to add too much oil, as the mixture will become too thick. However, if that does happen, you can stir in a little bit of water to thin out the mayonnaise.

Voila! You have mayonnaise!

But here’s the really cool thing – in the early stages, after you’ve added some oil but your mayonnaise isn’t too thick, you can also add other ingredients to flavor your mayo before aiming for the consistency you want. For example, mince up a clove or two of garlic and add it to the blender to make a garlic aoili. Or add curry powder to make a curry mayo. Or chipotle peppers to make a nice spicy Mexican chipotle mayonnaise. The possibilities are endless. In any event, after you’ve added and blended in the extra ingredients, resume with the oil dribble to get the consistency you want.

Also, if you stop adding oil, you can blend your mayonnaise for extended periods of time without impacting its texture or flavor. That’s a great way to make sure your extra ingredients are well minced and distributed by the blender.

Once you try making your own mayonnaise you’ll be hard-pressed to go back to the store-bought stuff.

One final tip and trick – that blender will be a bit greasy after you’ve extracted all the mayo you can with your spatula. A great way to clean such a blender container is to rinse it out, and then fill it half-way with warm or hot water and a bit of dish detergent, and then, with the lid on, blend away on high for a minute or so. You’ll find that your blender container, once you get all the bubbles rinsed out, is clean and no longer greasy feeling (or at least less so than before).