Toum
Mayonnaise without egg, in which the garlic itself is the emulsifier — its proteins and mucilage can bind half a litre of oil into a fluffy, snow-white paste. There is one condition and it is absolute: the oil goes in drop by drop, and the first moment of impatience breaks the emulsion, and then only fresh garlic can rescue it.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Garlic 10 min
- Emulsion 15 min
- Resting 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneRemove the green germs
Split each clove and lift out the green germ with a knife tip. It gives a bitter, harsh edge that really shows with this much raw garlic.
Ingredients: 120 g garlic · 500 ml oil · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
The green germ removed from every clove.Blend the garlic with salt to a paste
Blend the garlic with the salt in a food processor for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides, until you have a smooth pale paste with no fragments. The salt acts as an abrasive here — it helps break the cells and release the compounds that emulsify the oil.
Ingredients: 120 g garlic · 500 ml oil · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
Add the oil in drops, not a stream
With the processor running, add the oil literally drop by drop for the first two minutes. This is the only moment the emulsion can fail. Once the paste visibly whitens and thickens, move to a thin stream. Adding all the oil (together with the liquid from the next step) takes about 15 minutes in total.
Ingredients: 120 g garlic · 500 ml oil · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
Drops for the first two minutes — then a thin stream.Alternate oil with juice and water
Every 100 ml of oil, add a spoonful of lemon juice or iced water. The liquid thins the emulsion and lets it take up the next dose of fat — without it the paste stiffens and breaks around halfway through the oil.
Ingredients: 120 g garlic · 500 ml oil · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
Stop when it holds a peak
Finished toum is white, fluffy and holds a stiff peak on a spoon, like meringue. If it is loose, add more oil in drops — that means the emulsion will take it. Season with salt and juice to taste.
Ingredients: 120 g garlic · 500 ml oil · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
A stiff peak on the spoon — the toum is done.Rest a quarter of an hour before serving
Transfer to a jar and leave 15 minutes. Freshly made toum is fiercely pungent; the heat eases a little after a while, and after a day in the fridge it becomes distinctly mellower and rounder.
Ingredients: 120 g garlic · 500 ml oil · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
Before you start
When the emulsion breaks
Do not throw it out. Wash the processor, blend two fresh cloves with salt and pour the broken mixture in drop by drop as you would oil. The emulsion rebuilds on the new garlic and nothing is wasted.
The oil must be neutral
Olive oil makes toum bitter — long, fast blending breaks it into tiny droplets and releases its bitter polyphenols. Use rapeseed or sunflower. Here olive oil is clearly the worse choice.
Fridge only
Raw garlic in oil kept warm carries a risk of botulism, so store toum only in the fridge, in a clean, sealed jar, and use a clean spoon. Eat it within two weeks — it mellows by the day. Serve it with grilled chicken, shawarma, roast potatoes, or simply with pita.