Egg Free Mayo Recipe

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OK, here it is, history and comments and all.

I found this recipe a long time ago, after I lost ALL animal products

whatever. And other categories. So no egg. I was thrilled to have

an egg-free mayo recipe. But I would make it and it would be

perfect. Maybe the next time, too. Then inexplicably it wouldn't

thicken. After I got tired of a lot of " creamy olive oil " batches, I

abandoned it. Then later I read somewhere that eggless mayo will

only thicken if the weather is dry. And here I sit in the Pacific

Northwest with our only 56 days of sun a year!

OK, so a couple weeks ago I thought there must be a way around this.

Namely, what about a bit of gelatin to sub for the missing egg?

Here's the recipe as written:

Eggless Mayo

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (or ACV should work)

1 tablespoon dry mustard (or to taste -- this is pretty nippy)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt (skip if salt is an issue)

1 cup vegetable oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)

In blender or food processor, combine lemon juice, mustard, garlic,

and salt. Blend until well blended. While still on, very slowly

dribble (really should be drop by drop or almost that slow) oil until

the mixture is thick. You may not need all the oil.

First Time:

I had ready about a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin dissolved in about

2 tablespoons of water, maybe a bit less.

I followed the recipe exactly, and as it approached a half cup of oil

used, I added the gelatin. It immediately became very thick and

wouldn't take any more oil. Aha, I said! It is a dry day. Maybe I

didn't need the gelatin!

Second Time:

Another dry day. I did not add the gelatin and it thickened

beautifully. It didn't take but about half a cup of oil.

Third Time:

Since I only got a half cup or so of mayo I thought I would double

the recipe. It was a damp drizzly day so I had about a tablespoon of

gelatin dissolved in a few tablespoons of water ready. After adding

about half a cup of oil I added half the gelatin. Nothing much

happened. I thought OK, maybe more oil takes more than twice the time

so I kept dribbling. I added the rest of the gelatin. It would NOT

thicken. I gave up. It was about the consistency of cream. I used

it as a rather nippy lemon mustardy creamy dressing on my salad and

it tasted good even if it wasn't mayo thickness.

Next morning I decided it probably needed another spoonful of

gelatin. Imagine my surprise when I got it out of the frig and found

it had gelled up nicely! OK, here are my thoughts. One, it WAS a

wet day. Two, perhaps trying to do twice as much allowed the blender

to heat everything up so the gelatin did not appear to gel until it

was refrigerated? But, this version was a little toward " mayo

gelatin " , rather than just a thick mayo consistency. Not really

jello. It worked perfectly well for several days until I ate it up, however,

My conclusion so far is, try for the dry day if possible; this is

easiest. And don't try to double the recipe. None of these versions

separated.

I will report further mayo adventures later.

P.S. As written this mayo is pretty nippy: I added a lot of garlic

and I like a lot of mustard. It has added a lot of flavor to cold

cooked veggies, liverwurst, chicken salad, " chicken lettucewiches " ,

etc. You can adjust seasonings as you wish.