Extra mayo please! By Mynhardt Joubert

I am reading two books at the moment: “My Life in France” by Alex Prud Home / Julia Child and “Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. Get it! If you love food and anything food related you won’t be able to put it down. While reading “My Life in France” an autobiographical recollection of Julia Child’s time spent in France, I have her cook book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” right next to me. The book describes in detail her experiences, research and composition of all the different recipes. I found it fascinating that so much care, detail and dedication could go into writing a recipe book, as opposed to what we have become used to, the quick flash in the pan dishes that you prepare after your favorite TV soap and the eight o’ clock news, no Sir! The recipes are described step by step with the most wonderful notes, hints, remedies and attention to detail. 

How refreshing to read something that has no full colour pictures, which are so styled and jazzed up that one can never get it to look the same and which takes up three quarters of the book, but only simple informative line sketches showing you exactly what to do. What a gift she has left behind, a true work of art, love and dedication. After reading for a while you become so intrigued that you start to cross reference to the recipes and then eventually have no choice but to move your arse and start cooking. The results are phenomenal and one can’t go wrong. The style is French Bourgeois which makes it accessible for all of us and the ingredients easy to find and can be wonderfully interpreted with your own local produce and personal flavors. 

This is my interpretation of her mayonnaise. I made the first batch of which the remains were collected with our fingers from the glass jar the first day so I decided to increase the quantity. It might seem quite a bit at first but lasts in the refrigerator for up to a week if not finished earlier by those ‘midnight snackers!’


The bowl! Most important: use a three liter sized ceramic bowl that you warm up with hot tap water, not boiling water as you will cook the eggs. Let the bowl warm up for about 3 minutes so that it can retain the heat and dry thoroughly with a cloth.

The Eggs: 3 of them. One gets the most beautiful Canola Eggs at the moment but any good quality large egg or even better your own will do. They have to be fresh and at room temperature. Add the egg yolks to the bowl and with an electric hand held mixer whip them up until they become puffy and quite sticky. This takes about three minutes. Add to this a table spoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice, half a teaspoon of salt and a heaped teaspoon of prepared mustard. Dry mustard will also work and prepared whole grain mustard is the absolute best. Beat for another two minutes and then the oil…

The oil: Three cups (750ml) Olive oil, which she lists as an option, is to my taste too strong. I have been using soyabean oil which is light and fruity. The one time we had crayfish tails all cooked up and prepared and a friend launched herself towards the fridge to grab the shop bought acidy mayo. I stopped her dead in her tracks and said there is no way! I will make the mayonnaise. After searching high and low for some oil the only thing we could manage to produce from the cupboards was a bottle of roasted artichokes in oil. I drained off the fragrant oil, shut my eyes and hoped for the best…it was absolutely delicious. So experiment! 

While mixing start adding the oil in a thin stream, little by little, the mixture will start to thicken after about a minute, just keep on going until all the oil has been added. After about four minutes the result is a beautiful thick pale yellow cloud of mayonnaise winking at you from the bowl.

Herbs: One can keep the mayo as is but I love adding fresh herbs to it and always some garlic. Chop about 50ml of your favourite herb. Anything will do. Basil is particularly good and I have been using a mixture of chopped rosemary and thyme. Add three or four grated cloves of garlic. Bottle in a glass jar and let it rest for about two hours. Enjoy with and over….everything! Bon appétit!

Mynhardt Joubert - Moerby Kultuur