Cold Emulsified Sauces

Appears in
The Cook's Companion: A step-by-step guide to cooking skills including original recipes

By Josceline Dimbleby

Published 1991

  • About
Mayonnaise is the most popular and well known cold emulsified sauce. It should be thick and creamy and the key to making it successfully is to have the ingredients at room temperature. Although there is no worry of eggs scrambling as in a hot sauce, a mayonnaise can easily curdle if the oil is too cold or if it is added too quickly.
Making mayonnaise by hand is easily mastered, but with a food processor it is magically quick. I think making the sauce by hand is very satisfying and enables the cook to feel the texture thicken, but using a food processor means that a homemade sauce with a flavour so different from commercial variations can be produced in minutes.