La mayonnaise à la fourchette

Yesterday I decided to make another batch of mayonnaise — we still had some white asparagus to cook and eat. And I did something I have maybe never done before: I set up my camera on its tripod, put it on the table focused on the bowl, and put in in video mode. The running time of the video is about three minutes. I didn't erase the sound track, but there's really nothing interesting to hear.

I decided to make the mayonnaise using just a fork to mix it with, instead of a whisk, to show you how easy it is to do. Here's a recap of the ingredients.

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 splash vinegar (about ½ tsp.)
• salt and black pepper
• 175 ml (¾ cup U.S.) vegetable oil

For the mayonnaise in my video, I used red wine vinegar and a 50/50 mixture of olive oil and canola (colza) oil. The video goes a little blurry just before then end, but I didn't try to redo it. It still makes the point. You can see how slowly at first, but faster toward the end, you can pour the oil into the egg mixture. The trick is to keep beating the mixture steadily as the mayonnaise comes together.

This is a fresh mayonnaise that is really good served with cold foods like hard-boiled eggs, poached asparagus, a steamed artichoke, cooked chicken, fish, shellfish, or ham, etc. It's also good with steak, or turned into a thousand island dressing or tartar sauce.