I can’t stand “Miracle Whip” but others disagree. What is the difference? This is the silliest question ever asked, but still… While we’re at it I’d like to know what the ingredients of “salad cream” and other mayo-like lubricants are.
The first thing I notice is that that Miracle Whip seems to be slightly lighter in texture than mayonnaise, which leads me to believe that it has more air whipped into it. Alas, I found no info at http://www.miraclewhip.com to confirm that.
Maoy is, as you say, basically eggs and oil. It’s an emulsion of tiny tiny droplets of oil (and a few tiny tiny droplets of vinegar) held apart by egg yolk and a wee bit of mustard. The emulsion will collapse over time, so that’s why homemade mayonnaise only lasts a day, and why store-bought mayonnaise has stablisers added. Any other ingredients are there to cut costs or alter the taste. Sugar may be because a lot of people have a palate adapted to sugar.
Salad cream contains: vinegar, oil, water, sugar, mustard, salt, egg yolk, cornstarch, stablizers (xanthan gum, guar gum), colour (riboflavin). It’s very heavy on vinegar, in my opinion. I don’t like it.
I should have mentioned that, in the South, there is mayonnaise, there is salad dressing, there is Miracle Whip, and then there is Dukes. Dukes is the highest form of all such things — especially wonderful on banana sandwiches and tomato sandwiches (with black pepper and Merita bread).
Another case where what one part of the south does, isn’t necessarily true of other parts, Lib. I have no idea what Dukes is, if we have it here in Mississippi no one is a big fan. In this area Hellmann’s rules.
Personally, I agree with NurseCarmen mayo is a lubricant for getting down dry bread (all bread is basically dry) and therefore if you get too hung up over the taste of it, then you’ve put too much on whatever you should be tasting.
Tansu’s got it. Mayo, in its absolute purest form, starts with oil and egg yolks and bit of vinegar (or lemon juice.) Mustard is a normal addition, but not absolutely required. If you’ve never had mayonnaise made from olive oil, then you really have never had good mayo. Good homemade mayonnaise is the food of the Gods. Try making some one day. It’s fun, and it’ll impresse your sweetie.
Miracle Whip, on the other hand, is a disgusting concoction of chemicals.
I had always heard, or maybe I had read, that Miracle Whip came to be because of the need to find cheap alternative to vegetable oil during the war.
That is, because of the war and rationing (Or maybe the supply lines were cut off? I don’t know) the price of vegetable oil (No clue what it was used for militarily) had shot up to the point that was brutally expensive. As a result, a group of people sat down came up with a cheap substitute to the oil (Maybe the hydrogenated part?). Since it wasn’t really mayo, because the oil wasn’t there, they had to call it something, so, Miracle Whip it became.
Aside from proportions and preservatives, you’ll notice two things:
Miracle Whip has no whole eggs. This is why it isn’t mayonnaise; egg white is essential to the texture (and the stability) of true mayonnaise.
Miracle Whip contains starch, which is a stabilizer. Mayonnaise contains no stabilizers; properly prepared mayonnaise will not separate when refrigerated.
Hellman’s is owned by Best Foods, and is probably the same stuff.
I’d also like to add that the very idea of putting Mayonnaise OR Miracle Whip on a salad is disgusting.
It has its own cult, comprised chiefly of transplanted Nawthnuhs.
Yikes, you’re right, Kniz! Sorry about that. I’m the one who’s always irked by TV shows that mix together accents from Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas in the same family. I should have known better. (Do you have Merita bread in Mississippi?)
Nametag - Egads, boy! Egg white, mayonnaise!? Why, Escoffier is turning in his grave! (Yes, I do realize mayo had been around before him.) Real mayo does NOT contain egg whites anywhere near it.
Maybe it’s needed for commercial mayo intended for long-term storage, God knows what they need to put in it to make it keep, but egg whites are NOT the difference between mayo and Miracle Whip. No, no, no, no.
Repeat: Egg Yolks+Oil+vinegar/lemon juice+salt/pepper/mustard = Mayo
Actually, since this is GQ, this site has a wonderful explanation of the science of making mayonnaise and how and why it works. (I think the recipe is sacrilege…I mean Real Lemon, Onion Powder, Soybean oil? Yech…)
Note:
". The whites from the egg should be discarded. If you try to include them, the recipe will not work. "
“A lot of people make the mistake of adding the egg whites back in at this point, but this always results in a slimy goo rather than mayonnaise”
Actually, sorry…just wanted to add a note on my reference. Upon re-reading, it’s not really the most accurate picture of what’s going on when the yolks and oil emulsify, but it does describe the important points. The oil-to-acid issue isn’t as critical as the person seems to describe. The most important point in mayonnaise making is making sure you add the oil very very slowly at first to the egg yolks to make sure the mayo properly emulsifies. Otherwise you end up with a gooey mess. Also the yolks-to-oil proportions are fairly important.
