Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise, often abbreviated as mayo, is a thick, creamy sauce often used as a condiment. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier.

Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale yellow. It may range in texture from that of light cream to thick. In countries influenced by French culture, mustard is also a common ingredient, but the addition of mustard turns the sauce into a remoulade with a different flavor and the mustard acts as an additional emulsifier. In Spain, Portugal and Italy, olive oil is used as the oil, and mustard is never included.

Commercial egg free mayonnaise like spreads are available for people who want to avoid animal fat and cholesterol, or who are allergic to eggs.

Uses:

Chile:
Chile is the world's third major per capita consumer of mayonnaise and first in Latin America. Chileans have used it on locos, completos, French fries, and on boiled chopped potatoes, a salad commonly known as "papas mayo".

Europe:
In European countries, especially Belgium and the Netherlands, mayonnaise is often served with pommes frites, French fries, or chips. It is also served with cold chicken or hard-boiled eggs in France, Poland, the UK, Benelux, Hungary, Austria, the Baltic States and Eastern Europe.

North America:
Commercial mayonnaise sold in jars originated in Philadelphia in 1907 when Amelia Schlorer decided to start selling her own mayonnaise recipe originally used in salads sold in the family grocery store.

In the Southeastern part of the United States an almost ubiquitous presence in American sandwiches, mayonnaise forms the basis of northern Alabama's signature White barbecue sauce. It is also used to add stability to American-style buttercream and occasionally in cakes as well.

Japan:
Japanese mayonnaise is typically made with apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar and a small amount of MSG, which gives it a different flavor from mayonnaise made from distilled vinegar. It is most often sold in soft plastic squeeze bottles. Its texture is thinner than most Western commercial mayonnaise.

Apart from salads, it is popular with dishes such as okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yakisoba and may also accompany katsu and karaage. It is sometimes served with cooked vegetables, dabbed on sushi or mixed with soy sauce, hot/spicy chili oil or wasabi and used as dips. In the Tokai region, it is a frequent condiment on hiyashi chuka. Many fried seafood dishes are served with a side of mayonnaise for dipping. It is also common in Japan to use mayonnaise on pizza. Mayonnaise is also often used for cooking where it can replace butter or oil when frying vegetables or meat.

Kewpie (Q.P.) is the most popular brand of Japanese mayonnaise, dvertised with a Kewpie doll logo. It is made with egg yolks instead of whole eggs, and the vinegar is a proprietary blend containing apple and malt vinegars.

Russia:
Mayonnaise is very popular in Russia where it is made with sunflower seed oil which gives it a very distinctive flavor. It is used as a sauce in the most popular salads in Russia such as Russian Salad and Dressed Herring and also many others. Leading brands are Calve and Sloboda.
Furthermore, in many Eastern European countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.), one can find different commercial flavors of mayonnaise, such as olive, quail-egg, and lemon.

China:
There is no direct translation for the word "mayonnaise" in China. Although readily available in most super-markets, the English label will show the word mayonnaise, but the Chinese label translates as "Thick Yolk Condiment" or "Egg Yolk Sauce" or a variation of that. It is often flavored.

Mayonnaise is the base for many other chilled sauces and salad dressings. 


Nutritional Value:
There are several ways to prepare mayonnaise, but on average mayo is approximately 700 kilocalories (2,900 kJ) per 100 grams of product. This makes mayonnaise a calorically dense food.

Read More at Wikipedia
Recipe for Mayonnaise  Link 1   Link 2   Link 3