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A few days back I was making garlic bread. I had pressed garlic into olive oil, added a little salt, and forgot about it for a good half hour or so. When I came back to it, I stirred it up a bit, and it seemed to thicken slightly. Intrigued, I whisked some more and it ended up extremely thick, with self-sustaining peaks.

Tonight I tried to recreate this phenomenon, and it really didn't do anything to speak of. After whisking hard for about 45 minutes, I still basically had a bunch of pressed garlic sitting in a pool of olive oil.

What did I do wrong the second time, and what did I do right the first time?

Ray
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2 Answers2

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Congratulations, you accidentally made allioli, a Catalan emulsified sauce requiring only garlic and olive oil to thicken and emulsify. Unfortunately, it's harder to make and less stable than the other aiolis (garlic mayonnaises), which include egg yolks as emulsifiers. This is probably why you are having difficulty replicating it.

To make it more consistently:

  1. Smash the garlic up into a fine paste before adding oil
  2. Add oil slowly, starting with a drop at a time, and mixing rapidly until incorporated (traditionally this is done with a mortar and pestle, but it is easier with a mini-whisk).
  3. Optionally, cheat and add an egg yolk (beaten) for every clove or two of garlic (it is no longer a true allioli though).
BobMcGee
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  • I've admittedly never made an aioli, but assuming that it works more or less like any other emulsion and requires dispersion, then you'd probably get the best results by grating the garlic into a paste using a rasp. – Aaronut Jun 01 '11 at 23:54
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    By a rasp, do you mean a microplane? (This is probably a regional dialect difference.) That's a good point, it would probably break down the garlic better than just the traditional mortar and pestle would. Also, you should totally try making an aioli from scratch... they're pretty fast and very rewarding. Oh, and you can cheat and use an immersion blender. – BobMcGee Jun 01 '11 at 23:58
  • Yes, Microplane is another name for it (although I thought that was the brand name - mine has an "®" after the "Microplane"). As for me, I'll definitely play around with mayonaisses and other such emulsions once I get a half-decent stick. – Aaronut Jun 02 '11 at 00:05
  • Now that you mention it, this reminds me of some more relevant details in my original accident. I was trying to just get the oil garlic-flavored. After sitting, and stirring (to get the oil evenly flavored), I realized I needed some more oil. I added a small bit, stirred, and noticed it was still too thick. Assuming it was just a matter of being too concentrated, I added more oil again, etc. So, I accidentally followed the relatively (for making plain old garlic bread) process of adding the oil slowly and incorporating each addition before adding more. – Ray Jun 02 '11 at 10:10
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    Also, if you do use the immersion blender, definitely stay away from extra-virgin olive oil; it will turn bitter. See e.g., http://www.cooksillustrated.com/howto/detail.asp?docid=18825 for an explanation (and a workaround of starting the emulsion with a different oil, then whisking in the EVOO). – derobert Jun 02 '11 at 17:35
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    I cannot read the posted link, could you please tell us what is the explanation? – PA. Mar 01 '12 at 08:09
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    My grandmother usually added some large grains of salt with the garlic into the mortar to ease the initial smashing process of the garlic. – PA. Mar 01 '12 at 08:11
  • @PA.: The curiosity got to me also; I had to look it up. This source quotes and attributes the Cook's Illustrated article. EVOO has polyphenols, which are antioxidants thought by some to possibly cure or prevent cancer. Normally they're surrounded by fatty acids, but mixing with a motorized blender breaks up the fatty acids, allowing the bitter polyphenols to mix into the aioli. http://summertomato.com/the-bitter-truth-about-olive-oil/ – MargeGunderson Sep 26 '12 at 07:32
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I have made aioli autentico several times. You must add a pinch of salt to the smashed garlic paste before you start whipping in the oil. The emulsion absolutely will not form without the salt. It only takes a pinch.

William McClain
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