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Mayonnaise is flavored fat that's been processed in a special way to make it spreadable, even when it's cold. The concept rests on the intuition that fat is good; flavored fat is better; and (in certain situations) creamy, spreadable flavored fat is best of all. Learn how to make mayonnaise in your home kitchen by learning all about it here, and you may never reach for the store-bought jar again.
The process of creating mayonnaise is a sort of culinary magic trick called emulsification. Emulsification is when two liquids that don't mix realize a kind of union with the help of a third ingredient (known as an emulsifier). In the case of mayonnaise, oil and water are held together by emulsifiers found in egg yolk.
An emulsion looks like a homogeneous blend, but it's really not. At a microscopic level, the oil in mayonnaise is still separate from the water, suspended in droplets. The emulsifier is the key element that makes this possible, because it keeps the oil droplets from coalescing into larger globules and separating (like oil and water). Paradoxically, the emulsifier keeps the oil and water together by keeping them apart.
Why is this relevant? Because to learn how to make mayonnaise, it helps to understand how it works, and to visualize what you're doing with your whisk, blender, or other mechanical implement: breaking drops of oil into tiny droplets — which must be kept tiny — so the emulsifier can do its magic.
As with most cooking techniques, understanding the foundation gives you control and creative freedom. Master the basic process, and start making mayonnaise without a recipe, customizing it to your tastes, and creating variations. Then you can extend your abilities to the many mayonnaise derivatives like remoulade, aioli, Russian dressing, blue cheese dressing, green goddess dressing, vegan mayonnaise, and so on.
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