Who came up with Mayo?

Factual Questions
1

I mean, it’s not exactly squashed tomatoes, is it?

2

Just what planet’s mayo are you referring to? How did the idea of mayo come together with the idea of tomatoes at all?

3

Mayonnaise was invented in 1756 by Duc de Richelieu’s chef. Richelieu had been sent to Spain by Louis XIV to fight a group of Englishmen who were in the town of Mahon.

Richelieu was used to the fine foods of the king’s court and his chef had to do what he could with what he had on hand, namely eggs, oil and vinegar.

The sauce was first called sauce mahonnaise, after the town, but the name got Frenchified into mayonnaise.

That being said, basic mayo isn’t exactly complicated either. It is an emulsion, something any chef would have been familiar with even back then, I suppose.

4

A bunch’o cites:
http://www.foodhistory.com/foodnotes/leftovers/mayo/info/
http://www.xmission.com/~dderhak/monte/mayo.htm

5

I thank you, jovan, from the bottom of my heart. Accuracy about one of the finest culinary inventions on earth deserves applause. The genius of concocting a sumptuous condiment from some of the most commonly had ingredients of any available amounts to a Nobel Prize achievement, if ever there was one.

6

At last I may tell my room mate just who is behind the terrible agony in his stomach.

That’ll learn him for leaving the stuff on the counter all day.

7

You’re quite welcome.

I take my mayo seriously. Or with a grain of salt. And french fries.

8

Don’t blame the mayo, according to The Association for Dressings and Sauces:

9

And I always thought it came from the Mayo Clinic.

Well, someone was going to say it.

10

I read it as, “Who came up with mayo? It seems less an intuitive thing than catsup.”

11

And yet the history of ketchup is so infinitely more tortuous than that of mayo…

12

Catsup… Ketchup… Catsup… Ketchup… Oooh, I’m in way over my head…

13

According to “Extraordinary Origins Of Ordinary Things” By Charles Pinati, Mayo was invented on the island of Minorca. Cardinal Richelieu (or his chef) brought the recipe back to Spain after visiting the town of Mahon.

14

Don’t worry about it. Both words are roughly the same age and refer to the same concoction.

1690 - Catchup
1711 - Ketchup
1730 - Catsup

All of which appear to have been British phonetic transcriptions of the word that the Dutch brought back to Europe as ketjap from the Amoy Chinese or Malay words for a sauce that was originally meant “brine of pickled fish or shellfish.” (OED)

15

Bingo! Thanks for mentioning this, dropzone.

I have yet to ever get food poisoning from Mayonnaise. I’ve accidentally left it out overnight and suffered no ill effects from eating the rest of the jar (not in one sitting, mind you).

Several years ago, we left the Mayonnaise unrefrigerated at our work site and used it every day with no problems. However, this was during winter time, I’d never recommend doing it in the summer.

16

Most mayonnaise jars I’ve met in Mexico never see the inside of a refrigerator. If you keep it out and exposed to sunlight for an excessive period of time the smeared mayo on the “empty” top portion of the jar will congeal, harden and turn beigish green, but even then the remaining stock should be OK.

Now, having checked my mayo stock… the McCormick brand glass jar does not have any indication on refrigeration, but the Hellmans foil pack that came as a free sample with a loaf of bread has a phrase to the effect that refrigeration after opening “is recommended”.