Recipe: Brown butter mayonnaise ... or bacon mayonnaise ... or ...

Now that we've started to stockpile brown butter from making our croutons, we need more uses for brown butter - we can't just keep making brown butter and beer pie crusts forever - well ... no we better not.

Brown butter mayonnaise definitely ranks up in the decadent category, but that makes cooking fun.  As long as you aren't eating it on every sandwich, I'm sure your doctor will forgive you.  That's why this recipe is calculated down to one egg yolk - it's pretty much the lowest common denominator to make mayonnaise without getting silly and it keeps you from going overboard on the stuff.  What is really neat about this recipe is that it's pretty much adaptable to any of those delicious animal fats that go hard in the fridge - bacon drippings, duck fat, the fat caps on chicken or beef stocks, fat drippings from the Sunday roast (oh, mama yea), the list goes on.  Cooked up a bit of foie gras, you bet save the fat.  The most recent one I made was the drippings from cooking out diced pancetta - I made sure not to add any more salt, but it worked great.

Since these fats tend to go very hard in the fridge, it is necessary to add some vegetable oil and water to keep the mayonnaise soft.  The alternating whisking and cooling stage helps incorporate some air into the mix, which also helps keep it a bit softer when cold.  Keep in mind that since the base fat is very temperature sensitive (unlike vegetable oil), the mayonnaise will be too.  If you keep your fridge extra cold and it comes out a bit firm, give it a moment to temper up.  If you accidentally leave it out too long, it may go a bit loose on you - just repeat the cooling and whisking step to bring it back. 

You will need:

125ml / 1/2C             brown butter (melted but not warm)

100ml / 3.4 fl oz        grapeseed oil (or other vegetable oil)
45ml / 3Tbs               water

2                                large egg yolks

5ml / 1tsp                  Dijon mustard

5ml / 1tsp                  lemon juice (or vinegar of your choice)

1/2 pinch                   cayenne

to taste                       kosher salt

Method:

 - melt the brown butter then let it cool to just above room temperature

 - separate the yolks and put it in a small bowl with the mustard

 - whisk the egg and mustard together well

 - add the lemon juice, water and cayenne and whisk

 - while whisking, slowly drizzle in the brown butter

 - drizzle in the vegetable oil

 - season with kosher salt

 - place the bowl in the fridge to cool for five minutes

 - whisk the mayonnaise again and return to the fridge

 - periodically whisk and refrigerate until the mayonnaise is completely cool and has a soft consistency

 - keep in the fridge until use