On Mayonnaise
No question that mayo is a much beloved condiment in our house, especially by my father and me: we buy the 1Gal jars of Kraft.
While I personally like Hellman’s, my folks only eat it when there’s no other option. My folks grew up on Blue Plate, but because my dad was in the Army, we haven’t seen much of it since 1974.
We just got some Duke’s to try a couple weeks ago. To me, it’s definitely a superior texture and consistency as compared to Kraft or Hellman’s, and I do like its flavor at least as much as those others. But its cost per serving is higher than Kraft, so it’s not going to become our #1 over it. Still, I’ll probably be keeping some on hand for certain dishes where its richness will elevate the overall taste & texture.
Which brings us to Truff black truffle mayonnaise. I was gifted some a couple nights ago by a friend who is a fan of how I cook. I had some straight from the jar as well as on a cracker with some deli chicken.
I was surprised. After the straight tasting, I was very skeptical about it. While the base mayo texture was similar to Duke’s, the ground truffle added a certain grittiness. And the flavor had an odd finish to it.
To be clear: I like black truffles. Besides enjoying it in dishes in restaurants, I often have truffle-infused foods in the house- usually cheeses. So not actually enjoying Truff straight was unexpected.
But I continued to the next test because I know that some condiments or ingredients don’t taste particularly good in isolation, like Dijon mustard. I use Dijon all the time, but I never use it solo or lick the spoon.
My results with the second test were markedly better. On a cracker with deli chicken, the grittiness I detected was entirely absent. The flavor was different from a plain mayonnaise, as expected, but I’m still undecided as to whether it was a flavor worth investing in.
IOW: tests inconclusive; more investigation needed.
