limiting its movement. Eventually, if you keep adding oil,
the mayonnaise will start to turn from creamy and luscious
to pasty and overly thick. Try it now, and it will coat your
mouth like candle wax—there isn’t enough water in the
emulsion to adequately coat each of the oil droplets, and
they end up spilling out and breaking. Your mayonnaise
turns greasy.So, the key to a nice, creamy mayonnaise is to adjust the
ratio of oil to water until you get the exact consistency
you’re looking for. Since I already know that, flavorwise, I
like to use about 1 egg per cup (see “How Much Mayo Can
I Make from One Egg?” here), the rest is just a matter of
adding a little water a drop at a time to the finished product
until it thins out to the consistency I’m after.
Foolproofing
The rate at which the oil is added is a key factor in
determining whether or not your mayonnaise will be
successful. Looking back at the metaphor of a college
mixer, imagine that only one or two MIT boys trickle into
that girls-college mixer at a time. The emulsifiers have a
fairly easier time of separating them from each other and
getting them into the mix of things, completely surrounding
them with girls. A steady stream of nerds is easy to mix, so
long as they trickle into the party slowly. Now imagine the
opposite: a whole group of them suddenly shows up at
once, clinging tightly to each other. Suddenly it’s much
harder to get them to mix nicely. Not only that, but any
nerds who have already been inserted into the fray will see