In Praise of Mayo

I love mayonnaise. Always have. When I was a child, my sister and I used to rush inside with a sack of groceries, pull out the mayo jar, and tussle over who would be the first one to taste it.

What an odd thing to do, but true. I made my own mayonnaise for a time and liked it better than the Hellmann's I usually buy, but the fresh stuff goes rancid too quickly, especially since my husband doesn't eat mayonnaise. Actually, I don't eat that much mayo, but when I do, I slather it in deep swaths. Last night, we had home-grilled burgers, so I layered both of my buns to the point of gooey. This disgusted my husband, who's mother force-fed him mayonnaise-laden sandwiches when he was a boy. This left such a negative impact, the stuff appalls him to this day. He would rather go hungry than eat anything with mayo. Meanwhile, I take little dips from the jar now and then. In fact, for lunch today, I sliced leftover chicken and spread each piece with mayonnaise, again giving my husband the shivers. Wikipedia has a page devoted to mayonnaise. Seems the Spanish may have invented it, although the French made it famous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise The photo above seems to be a jar of Canadian mayonnaise. The label says the eggs come from cage-free hens. I wonder if they cluck in French.

The French have aioli festivals every spring, which are devoted to what is essentially garlic-flavored mayo. Have you ever been to an aioli festival? It's on my bucket list.

Have you ever made your own mayonnaise? I might start making it again after reminding myself in this post just how much I love the stuff.

Do you have a favorite store brand? I buy Hellman's, but let me know if another brand is fabulous.

As you can tell, there isn't much more one can say about mayonnaise. But if you have any thoughts on this topic, please let me know.