Aioli
Aioli is the Provençal sauce whose name simply means “garlic and oil”. In its oldest form that is exactly what it is: garlic pounded with salt in a mortar and olive oil worked in drop by drop. Today an egg yolk is almost always added, which stabilises the emulsion and makes it far easier. It is served with boiled vegetables and fish as le grand aïoli — a Provençal lunch from a single platter — and with fish soup. It is quite different from Lebanese toum, which has no egg and is snow white.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Preparation 5 min
- Emulsifying 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 donePrepare
Take the eggs out at least half an hour ahead — yolks and oil should be at the same room temperature. Cold yolks and oil added too quickly are the two commonest causes of a split sauce.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
Pound the garlic
Peel the garlic, remove the green germ from the centre (it is bitter) and pound the cloves with the salt into a smooth paste.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
The salt grinds the garlic down to a smooth paste.Add the yolks
Add the yolks and work them into the garlic until uniform and slightly paler.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
Start the oil
Add the oil drop by drop, working constantly with the pestle or a whisk. The first 50 ml decide everything — oil added too fast breaks the emulsion. Two yolks would carry as much as 400 ml, so at 200 ml you have a wide margin; the sauce splits from haste, not from too much oil.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
Drop by drop, no hurry.Speed up
Once the sauce thickens and clearly holds together, add the oil in a thin stream, still mixing.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
Season
Stir in the lemon juice and pepper. The sauce should be thick enough for a spoon to stand in — loosen it with a teaspoon of warm water if it is too stiff.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
Thick enough to hold the whisk's mark.Rescue a split sauce
If it separates, work a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and add the split sauce to it drop by drop, whisking all the time — the emulsion rebuilds. To avoid using another yolk, start the same way from a teaspoon of warm water; it is less reliable but usually enough. Rebuilt on an extra yolk, the sauce comes to about 270 ml.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
Serve
Serve with boiled potatoes, green beans, carrots, hard-boiled eggs and fish, or with fish soup. Put what is left straight into a jar in the fridge — a raw-yolk sauce keeps there for no more than 2 days.
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic · ½ tsp coarse salt · 2 pcs egg yolks, at room temperature · 200 ml mild olive oil · 1 tbsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp white pepper
Before you start
Raw eggs
The sauce contains raw yolks, so it is not for children, pregnant women, the elderly or anyone immunocompromised. Use very fresh eggs from a source you trust and keep the sauce refrigerated for no more than 2 days.
The oil
A very robust extra virgin olive oil turns bitter when emulsified. Use a mild oil, or half olive and half rapeseed — the flavour is cleaner.
Storage
A sauce with raw yolk and garlic belongs in the fridge only, in a closed jar, for up to 2 days. Do not leave it at room temperature beyond the meal.