mayonnaise

The farm where we get our raw milk also sells grass-fed beef so we picked up a top round on our last milk run. For whatever reason, cooking roast beef has been intimidating to me but with some advice from Andy I went for it and it came out so yummy. We really bought it for the roast beef sandwich potential but I knew that we were out of mayonnaise which is an essential element. I have wanted to make my own because I am concerned, with store-bought mayo, about the quality of the eggs used - they are are no doubt from factory farmed birds - and the oil used is one I try to avoid. I figured that if I made it at home with pastured eggs and olive oil that it would be a health food. Nutritionally dense, right? Right? But it seemed like it might be a pain in the bum so it never became a top priority. But now I was out of mayo and needing it in a big way to properly appreciate my well cared for roast.

I set to work using Alton Brown's Recipe but instead of doing it in a glass bowl I did it in a jar with the whisk attachment on my immersion blender. It was genius even if I am saying so myself. Next time I'll do it in the wide mouth pint jar - I think that will be perfect. I only had the narrow mouth quart at hand and it worked fine but it was tricky to get the oil to trickle while still whisking continuously.

The all-olive oil option is quite a bit grassier than if you use canola or a mixture. I quite like it though it is a bit different if you are used to store-bought mayo. I heard the recommendation of starting with a small amount of Olive Oil and mostly safflower or canola oil and then slowly work to a higher Olive Oil amount. We tried it with some of the meat and handful of tomatoes in what might be one of the last picnic lunches of the year. Success. I'm pleased to have another pantry staple that feel completely do-able to make on my own but I'm still holding out on Ketchup for now.