Quite a long time back, I wrote about ketchup — I chose the subject because when our daughter was little she insisted on putting catchup on everything she ate. Anyhow, if I remember, I discussed kind of how ketchup came about — it was originally made from fish brine, and even today, all ketchup isn’t made from tomatoes.
But when I sat down here, I intended to write not about ketchup, but mayonnaise. (If you’re interested more in ketchup, just type ketchup in the search box for this blog.)
There was a time when mayonnaise was a celebrated — even noble — sauce and not just some glop that you put on sandwiches. That time was 1756; the place was Mahon, a city on the Spanish island of Minorca. The city of Mahon was captured by the forces of Louis-Francois-Armad de Vigneron du Plessis, duc de Richelieu. That resulted in the expulsion of the hated English from the island.
Well, after a hard day fighting the English, Louis decided they should celebrate, so he ordered his chef to whip up a feast.
The chef decided to make a cream sauce for the meats he was preparing, but he discovered that there was no cream to be found. So the chef grabbed some eggs, olive oil, and a whisk (and probably said a prayer.) The result of the chef’s inventiveness was Mayonnaise — named for the captured city.
The French love that sauce so much that they’ve invented over 50 variations of it.
The basic difference in American-style mayo and French-style is that American-style uses whole eggs, lemon juice, oil and is seasoned with salt and sometimes a bit of sugar. French-style uses egg yolks as well as mustard in addition to lemon juice and oil and is seasoned simply with salt.
Robin Williams once said, “Gentiles are people who eat mayonnaise for no reason.” I’m not sure I quite understand what that means, but since I don’t know any more about mayonnaise, it seems like good place to stop.
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