Mayonnaise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mayonnaise (/ˌmeɪəˈneɪz/ or /ˈmeɪəneɪz/, French: [majɔnɛz] Quebec French: [majɔnaɪ̯z] often abbreviated as mayo,[1]
is a thick, creamy sauce often used as a condiment.
Its origin is disputed, but it has the same structure as the "beurre de
Provence",[clarification needed] published
as early as 1642 in La Suite des Dons de Comus, being a kind of aioli. Some authors say that the name
originates from Mahon (Spain); in Spanish Mahonesa or Mayonesa,[2]
in Catalan Maionesa.[3]
It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar
or lemon juice,[4]
with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin
in the egg yolk is the emulsifier.[5]
Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale yellow. It may
range in texture from that of light cream to thick. In countries influenced by French culture,
mustard is also a common ingredient, but the addition of mustard
turns the sauce into a "remoulade", with a different flavor. In Spain and Italy, olive oil
is used as the oil and mustard is never included. Numerous other sauces can be
created from it with addition of various herbs, spices, and finely chopped
pickles. Where mustard is used, it is also an emulsifier.[6][7]
Origin
Some sources place the origin of
mayonnaise as being the town of Mahon in Menorca
(Spain),
from where it was taken to France after Armand
de Vignerot du Plessis's victory
over the British at the city's port in 1756. According to this version, the
sauce was originally known as salsa mahonesa in Spanish
and maonesa (later maionesa) in Catalan
(as it is still known in Menorca), later becoming mayonnaise as it was
popularized by the French.[8]
The Larousse
Gastronomique suggests: "Mayonnaise, in our
view, is a popular corruption of moyeunaise, derived from the very old
French word moyeu, which means yolk of egg."[9]
The sauce may have been christened mayennaise after Charles de Lorraine,
duke of Mayenne, because he took the time to finish his meal of chicken with
cold sauce before being defeated in the Battle of Arques.[10]
Nineteenth-century culinary writer
Pierre Lacam suggested that in 1459, a London woman named Annamarie Turcauht
stumbled upon this condiment after trying to create a custard of some sort.[11]
According to Trutter et al.:
"It is highly probable that wherever olive oil existed, a simple
preparation of oil and egg came about – particularly in the Mediterranean
region, where aioli
(oil and garlic)
is made."[8]
According to the Oxford
English Dictionary, mayonnaise
was in use in English as early as 1823 in the journal of Lady Blessington.[12]
Making
mayonnaise
Mayonnaise can be made by hand with
a mortar and pestle,[13]
whisk
or fork,
or with the aid of an electric mixer
or blender.
Mayonnaise is made by slowly adding oil to an egg yolk, while whisking
vigorously to disperse the oil. The oil and the water in yolks form a base of the
emulsion, while lecithin and protein from the yolks are the emulsifiers
that stabilize it.[14]
Additionally, a bit of a mustard may also be added to sharpen its taste, and
further stabilize the emulsion. Mustard contains small amounts of lecithin.[15]
If water is added to the yolk it can emulsify more oil, thus making more
mayonnaise.[16]
Composition
Homemade mayonnaise can approach 85%
fat before the emulsion breaks down; commercial mayonnaise is more typically
70-80% fat. "Low fat" mayonnaise products contain starches, cellulose gel, or other
ingredients to simulate the texture of real mayonnaise.
Commercial producers either pasteurize
the yolks, freeze them and substitute water for most of their liquid, or use
other emulsifiers. They also typically use soybean oil,
for its lower cost, instead of olive oil.[citation needed] Some recipes, both commercial and homemade, use the whole
egg, including the white.
Use
of mayonnaise
Europe
In some European countries, especially Belgium
and the Netherlands, mayonnaise is often served with pommes frites, French fries or chips.
It is also served with cold chicken or hard-boiled eggs in France, Poland, the
UK, Benelux, Hungary, Austria, the Baltic States and Eastern Europe.
Guidelines issued in September 1991
by Europe's Federation of the Condiment Sauce Industries recommend that oil and
liquid egg yolk levels in mayonnaise should be at least 70% and 5%
respectively, although this is not legislated. Most available brands easily
exceed this target.[17]
North
America
Commercial mayonnaise sold in jars
originated in Philadelphia in 1907 when Amelia Schlorer decided to start selling her
own mayonnaise recipe originally used in salads sold in the family grocery
store. Mrs. Schlorer's Mayonnaise was an instant success with local customers and
eventually grew into the Schlorer Delicatessen Company.[18]
Around the same time in New York City,
a family from Vetschau, Germany, at Richard
Hellmann's delicatessen on Columbus Avenue,
featured his wife's homemade recipe in salads sold in their deli. The condiment
quickly became so popular that Hellmann began selling it in "wooden
boats" that were used for weighing butter. In 1912, Mrs. Hellmann's
mayonnaise was mass marketed and later was trademarked in 1926 as Hellmann's
Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise.[19]
At about the same time that Mrs.
Schlorer's and Hellmann's Mayonnaise were thriving on the East Coast of the United States,
a California company, Best Foods, introduced their own mayonnaise, which turned out to be
very popular in the western United States. In 1932, Best Foods bought the
Hellmann's brand. By then, both mayonnaises had such commanding market shares
in their own half of the country that it was decided that both brands be
preserved. The company is now owned by Unilever.
In the Southeastern part of the
United States, Mrs. Eugenia Duke of Greenville,
South Carolina, founded the Duke Sandwich Company
in 1917 to sell sandwiches to soldiers training at nearby Fort Sevier. Her
homemade mayonnaise became so popular that her company began to focus
exclusively on producing and selling the mayonnaise, eventually selling out to
the C.F. Sauer Company of Richmond, Virginia, in 1929. Duke's Mayonnaise remains a popular brand of mayonnaise in the Southeast,
although it is not generally available in other markets.
In addition to an almost ubiquitous
presence in American sandwiches, mayonnaise forms the basis of Northern
Alabama's signature White Barbecue sauce. It is also used to add stability to American-style buttercream
and occasionally in cakes as well.
Japan
Japanese mayonnaise is typically
made with apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
and a small amount of MSG, which gives it a different flavor from mayonnaise made
from distilled vinegar.[citation needed] It is most often sold in soft plastic squeeze bottles. Its
texture is thinner than most Western commercial mayonnaise.[citation needed]
Apart from salads, it is popular
with dishes such as okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yakisoba and may also accompany katsu
and karaage.[citation needed] It is sometimes served with cooked vegetables, dabbed on
sushi or mixed with soy sauce or wasabi and used as dips. In the Tōkai region,
it is a frequent condiment on hiyashi chūka (cold noodle salad). Many fried seafood dishes are served
with a side of mayonnaise for dipping. It is also common in Japan to use
mayonnaise on pizza.
Mayonnaise is also often used for cooking where it can replace butter or oil
when frying vegetables or meat.[citation needed]
Kewpie (Q.P.) is the most popular
brand of Japanese mayonnaise,[citation needed] advertised with a Kewpie doll
logo. It is made with egg yolks instead of whole eggs, and the vinegar is a
proprietary blend containing apple and malt vinegars.[20]
Russia
Mayonnaise is very popular in Russia
where it is made with sunflower seed oil which gives it a very distinctive flavor. A 2004
study showed that Russia is the only market in Europe where mayonnaise is sold
more than ketchup
by volume. It is used as a sauce in the most popular salads in Russia such as Russian Salad
[oliv'e] and Dressed Herring and also many others. Leading brands are Calve (marketed by
Unilever) and Sloboda (marketed by Efko).[21]
Furthermore, in many Eastern
European countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.), one can find different commercial flavors of
mayonnaise, such as olive, quail-egg, and lemon.
Chile
Chile is the world's third major per
capita consumer of mayonnaise and first is Latin America.[22]
Since mayonnaise became widely accessible in the 1980s[citation needed] Chileans have used it on locos, completos, French fries, and on boiled chopped potatoes, a salad commonly known as
"papas mayo".
As
a base for other sauces
- Fry sauce
is a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup or another red sauce (e.g. Tabasco sauce, Buffalo wing sauce, or one of many smoky barbecue sauces popular in the Northwestern United States), spices,
and sometimes a strong tasting salty liquid (such as Worcestershire
or soy sauce) is added to balance out the sweeter red sauces.
Commonly eaten on French fries in Utah,
Idaho,
eastern Washington and rural Oregon.
- Marie Rose sauce combines mayonnaise with tomato sauce or ketchup,
cream, flavorings and brandy. In North America, a processed version of Marie-Rose, called
"Russian Dressing" sometimes uses mayonnaise as a base. However,
most homemade varieties and nearly all commercial brands of "Russian
dressing" use little or no mayonnaise as a base. They are very dark
red and sweet dressings made with vegetable oil, tomato paste, vinegar,
sugar, and a variety of herbs and spices (often including mustard).
- Ranch dressing is made of buttermilk
or sour cream, mayonnaise, and minced green onions, along with other seasonings.
- Rouille
is aïoli
with added saffron, red pepper or paprika.
- Salsa golf
created in Argentina is mayonnaise with ketchup as well as spices such as
red pepper or oregano.
- Sauce rémoulade, in classic French cuisine is mayonnaise to which has
been added mustard, gherkins, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, and possibly anchovy essence.[23]
An industrially made variety is popular in Denmark
with French fries and fried fish. It is quite different from most of the
remoulade sauces that are frequently found in Louisiana and generally do
not have a mayonnaise base.
- Tartar sauce is mayonnaise spiced with pickled cucumbers and onion. Capers, olives,
and crushed hardboiled eggs are sometimes included. A simpler recipe calls
for only pickle relish to be added to the mayonnaise.
- Thousand Island dressing
is a salmon-pink dressing that combines tomato sauce and/or tomato ketchup
or ketchup-based chili sauce, minced sweet pickles or sweet pickle relish,
assorted herbs and spices (usually including mustard), and sometimes
including chopped hard-boiled egg—all thoroughly blended into a mayonnaise
base.
- Certain variations of honey mustard are based on mayonnaise and are made by combining
mayonnaise with plain mustard, brown sugar, and lemon
juice.
Common
additives in commercial mayonnaise
Commercially made mayonnaise may
contain sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, thickeners,
emulsifiers, EDTA,
flavor enhancers, and water. Such mixtures allow for the production of products
which are low in fats and/or sugars. Commercial mayonnaise is also readily
available without these additional ingredients.[citation needed]
Nutritional
information
There are several ways to prepare
mayonnaise, but on average mayo is approximately 700 calories (2,900 kJ)
per 100 grams of product. This makes mayonnaise a calorically dense food.
Mayonnaise
alternatives
For people with serious health
conditions, where cholesterol is of big concern, or egg allergies,
but also for vegans and religious
vegetarians, who abstain from egg consumption
there are growing numbers of egg-free, mayonnaise-like spreads available.[24][25][26]
Some egg-free mayonnaise alternatives are also soy-free.[27]
The entire wiki link on
the subject can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise
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