Recipes, guides and kitchen know-how. Mostly useful, occasionally silly.
Aioli Recipe - The Posh Garlic Mayo (and the Cheat's Version)
Garlic pounded to a purée, an egg yolk, then olive oil whisked in drop by drop until a spoon stands up in it. Plus a two-minute cheat with a jar of mayo, a garlic and herb dip, and how to rescue it when it splits.
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- Prep20 min
- Chill1 hr
- Serves8
- Calories~210
Calories are approximate, per serving (about 2 tablespoons), worked out from the ingredients. Brands and portion sizes vary.
Aioli is the only sauce I know that comes with a performance review.
You stand there whisking oil into an egg yolk one drop at a time, and at any moment it can turn round and split on you. Like a teenager asked to empty the dishwasher, it simply decides it's not doing this today.
But when it works, it's glorious. Thick, glossy, golden, and garlicky enough to clear a room.
I knocked on Aaron's door straight after making this batch. He didn't invite me in. He never does. He's decided I'm a vampire - all in black, out after dark - and he's read that vampires can't come in unless they're invited. I've pointed out I'm holding a bowl of pure garlic. Still no invitation. Bit rich, coming from a potato that pale. The aioli's gone warm.
This aioli recipe gives you both versions. The proper one, the way they make it in Provence and Catalonia, with a pestle and mortar and a bit of patience. And the cheat's one, which takes two minutes and a jar from the fridge.
I read through the traditional French and Catalan recipes, a few British chefs and a lot of very honest comments about it going wrong, and kept what they all agree on. Chief among them: don't rush the oil. Patience has never been my strongest ingredient.
Now showing
Short on time? Here's the whole thing in 37 seconds. Quicker than the oil. Much quicker than the oil.
Starring a vampire on Aaron's doorstep, Isaac's invisible clove, Eesha's red pen and a spirit level nobody asked for. Aaron still hasn't opened the door.
Aioli vs mayo - is it just fancy mayonnaise?
Short answer: sort of, but don't say that in Marseille.
So what is aioli, exactly? The name is the recipe. In Provençal it's ail (garlic) and òli (oil). In Catalan it's all i oli, literally "garlic and oil", which is where the Spanish spelling alioli comes from.
Word association with Ayden: he said "aioli". I said "oily". He said that's just the same word with a y on the end. Still undefeated.
The purist version is just garlic, salt and olive oil, pounded in a mortar until it turns into a thick, pale cream. No egg at all. Catalan public radio has a lovely guide to how they still make allioli the old way, stirring in one direction until the pestle stands up on its own.
Most people in Provence, though, add an egg yolk. It makes the whole thing far more forgiving, and it's the version I'm giving you here. Think of it as stabilisers on a bike. Nobody's judging. The purists are judging.
Mayonnaise is the same idea without the garlic: yolk, oil, acid, whisk. Garlic mayo is mayonnaise with garlic stirred in afterwards. Aioli starts with the garlic, pounded to a purée before anything else goes in, so the flavour runs right through it.
Mayo is a sauce. Aioli is a sauce with a clove story.
The poet Frédéric Mistral loved it so much he named a newspaper after it in 1891. And in Provence, "faire monter l'aïoli" - to make the aioli rise - means getting the party going. Chilli Oliver would like it noted that a Provençal cook in our research adds two small chillies to hers. He considers this proof he was right all along.
What you need
For the aioli (makes about 250ml, serves 8)
- 3 fat garlic cloves, peeled, with the little green shoot in the middle pulled out. That's the bitter bit.
- A good pinch of sea salt - it grips the garlic in the mortar
- 1 egg yolk, at room temperature. Cold yolks are how sauces split.
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 175ml light olive oil. Not extra virgin - beaten hard, that goes bitter and heavy.
- 25ml extra virgin olive oil, stirred in at the end for flavour
- 1 tsp cold water
For the cheat's version
Four things and no whisking. Isaac asked if this means he's not getting paid in yolk-covered spoons. It does.
- 150g good mayonnaise from a jar
- 1 small garlic clove
- A pinch of salt
- ½ tsp lemon juice
Shop mayonnaise is usually made with pasteurised egg, so this is also the one to make if raw yolk isn't for you. Check the label to be sure. Aaron read the label. Then the small print. Then the barcode.
Kit
- A pestle and mortar, ideally a heavy stone one that won't wander off
- A garlic press, or a fine grater - more on that in step 1
- A mixing bowl and a balloon whisk
- A damp tea towel to sit the bowl on, so it doesn't spin while you whisk
- A small jug with a spout for the oil. It makes "drop by drop" possible rather than theoretical.
How to make aioli
Step 1 - Turn the garlic into a purée
- Take the eggs out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you start. Everything should be at room temperature.
- Peel the garlic and pull out any green shoot from the middle of each clove.
- Squeeze the cloves through a skin-on garlic crusher straight into the mortar. It's a lot quicker than chopping, and there's a little silicone tube in the box that peels the cloves for you.
- No press? Grate them on the finest side of a grater, or chop them finely and squash with the flat of a knife.
- Add the salt and pound and grind with the pestle until you have a smooth, wet purée with no lumps. This is what makes it aioli rather than mayo with bits in.
If you want every other way to tackle a clove, there's a whole post on getting a clove fine without losing a fingertip.
Step 2 - Add the yolk and a little lemon
- Add the egg yolk to the garlic.
- Add 1 teaspoon of the lemon juice and keep the rest for later.
- Stir with the pestle until it's smooth, pale and slightly sticky - about 30 seconds.
The yolk is your safety net. It contains lecithin, a natural emulsifier, which is what holds the oil and the watery bits together. Without it you're relying on garlic, salt and a lot of faith.
Hardcore traditionalists carry on with the pestle from here, stirring in one direction the whole time. I scrape everything into a bowl and switch to a whisk, because my forearm has a life to lead.
Step 3 - Add the oil, one drop at a time
- Sit the bowl on a damp tea towel so it stays put.
- Start adding the light olive oil literally a drop or two at a time, whisking constantly. Wait until each drop has vanished before adding the next.
- After about 50ml of oil, whisk in the teaspoon of cold water. It should already be thickening.
- Now you can switch to a very thin, steady thread of oil, still whisking.
The first few spoonfuls of oil are the whole game. Go too fast here and the yolk can't keep up, and you get a greasy puddle instead of a sauce. Oil be honest, this is the only bit where I stop talking.
A balloon whisk does this better than a fork, and one with a scraper built into the handle catches the garlic that hides round the edge of the bowl.
Room temperature, then drops, then patience. Almost every split aioli comes from cold ingredients or oil poured too fast in the first couple of minutes. Once it's thick and holding, you can relax. Before that, treat it like a sleeping baby.
Step 4 - Keep going until a spoon stands up
- Once about half the oil is in, you can pour a little more freely.
- When the light olive oil has all gone in, whisk in the extra virgin olive oil by hand, slowly.
- Whisk in the rest of the lemon juice. Taste and add more salt if it needs it.
- It's ready when it's thick, glossy and a spoon stands up in the middle on its own.
- Cover and chill for an hour - the garlic mellows a little and it firms up.
Too thick? Whisk in a few drops of water or lemon juice. It should hold its shape on a chip but not need a chisel.
And the egg white you've got left? Don't bin it. Turn the spare white into something sweet and crunchy and you've got pudding sorted too.
Step 5 - Or cheat: garlic mayo in two minutes
- Crush the garlic clove and mash it with a pinch of salt until it's almost liquid.
- Stir it into the mayonnaise with the lemon juice.
- Taste. Add more garlic a little at a time if you want it stronger. It gets stronger as it sits, so be brave but not reckless.
- Cover and chill for at least an hour, two if you can, so the flavour spreads through.
That's how to make garlic mayo, and honestly, at a barbecue nobody will ask to see your mortar.
Want a garlic and herb dip, like the one that comes with a takeaway pizza? Swap half the mayo for soured cream, add a teaspoon each of dried parsley and dried oregano, and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon juice. Chill it overnight if you can. It's the best garlic dip for wedges I know, and it doubles as a garlic sauce for anything off the barbecue. Lara says it's the only dip worth double-dipping. Ayden says that's unhygienic. Lara double-dips harder.
What to serve it with
In Provence the big occasion is le grand aïoli: a huge platter of poached salt cod, boiled potatoes, carrots, green beans, cauliflower and hard-boiled eggs, with a bowl of aioli in the middle and everyone helping themselves. Erin asked where the beans on toast were. There are no beans on toast. She has lodged an appeal.
Closer to home, it's brilliant with (Dexter would like it noted that he's brilliant with it too. He's not getting any.):
- Chips and wedges. Obviously. It's the law. Tyson has already taken one. And the tea towel.
- Garlic bread, torn into soldiers. Here's the loaf with the chopstick trick. Garlic, dunked in garlic. Nobody will stand near you. Worth it.
- Fish - battered, grilled or a fish finger sandwich
- Burgers, spread on the bun instead of plain mayo
- Raw veg - carrot sticks, radishes, cucumber. Erin has decreed radishes acceptable. With a dip. Today only.
- Roast chicken. Or go all in with a pot of chicken that already brought forty cloves to the party.
Raw egg, garlic and keeping it safe
The jokes stop for a minute here, because this bit matters.
Raw egg: in the UK, hen eggs with the red British Lion stamp (or from the Laid in Britain scheme) are fine to eat raw, and that includes homemade mayonnaise, even if you're pregnant. The Northern Ireland government's page on foods to avoid in pregnancy sets it out clearly.
If you're pregnant, avoid raw yolk from other hen eggs (unstamped or imported) and from duck, goose or quail eggs. The Lion advice also doesn't cover anyone whose immune system is severely weakened and who's on a special diet from their doctor. If any of that is you, make the cheat's version with shop mayo instead.
Garlic in oil: raw garlic sitting in oil is a botulism risk if it's kept at room temperature, because the oil shuts out the air. Oregon State University's food safety team explains why it has to live in the fridge.
- Keep homemade aioli covered in the fridge and eat it within 3 days.
- Don't leave it out on the table all afternoon. Serve it, then put it back.
- Never store garlic in oil at room temperature - not aioli, not a jar of cloves covered in oil, nothing. Here's where garlic actually likes to live.
Got a whole bulb to get through? The silicone tube that peels a whole bulb in seconds will save your thumbnails.
If it goes wrong
It split and went greasy? The oil went in too fast, or something was cold.
Fix: put a fresh egg yolk in a clean bowl, then whisk the split sauce into it a spoonful at a time. It comes back. Like nothing happened. We don't talk about it.
It never thickened at all? Not enough whisking before the oil sped up.
Fix: same rescue as above. The Catalan trick also works - mash half a cold boiled potato in a clean bowl and beat the runny sauce into it slowly. Aaron has offered. He is a potato. Nobody has accepted.
It tastes bitter? Too much extra virgin olive oil, or it was blitzed in a blender.
Fix: use mostly light olive oil, whisk by hand, and only stir in the extra virgin at the end. Blenders are for smoothies and showing off.
Way too garlicky? Big cloves, or the green shoots stayed in.
Fix: whisk in a little more oil, slowly, plus a squeeze of lemon or some chopped parsley. Or invite fewer people. Problem solved.
Thick as cement? That's a lot of oil and not much liquid.
Fix: whisk in a few drops of water or lemon juice until it's soft enough to dollop. Lovely for grouting. Less lovely on a chip.
Bowl skating across the worktop? You need one hand for the whisk and one for the oil. Nobody has a third.
Fix: sit the bowl on a damp tea towel. Or recruit a child to hold it, and pay them in lemon.
That's it. Garlic first, oil slowly, fridge afterwards.
And if it splits on you the first time, rescue it with a fresh yolk, or serve it anyway and call it a dressing. Erin will know. Erin always knows.
Now go and cook something.
