2024-04-15

Can this be made in under 30 seconds with an immersion blender? I doubt it because we need the garlic to be pastified before we add the oil. Maybe 1 minute?
1/4 the recipe below (1 bulb pasted first, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 cup oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice + immersion blender = 30 second win?).
EDIT: 56 seconds including some time monkeying around. Doable in under 45, I suspect 30-35 is possible, but it’s irrelevant because of the prep time to degerm the garlic. I know it’s not necessary, but I do recommend it unless your garlic is very fresh.

Why do some versions use water? Same volume of ice cold water as lemon juice?
The common theory is the acid and water help prevent the emulsion from breaking (emulsifier becomes overwhelmed with oil).
There’s a surprising lack of research into why garlic is so good as an emulsifier, the current thinking is there’s a bunch of things happening – different proteins, saponins, and magic.
Emulsifier molecules typically have a hydrophylic and lipophylic end.
Adding the lemon juice and water give the water side something to stick to.
Random tangent, saponins.
When you lather it up, the oil-liking side picks up the oil, the water-liking side picks up polarized molecules. This is how soap cleans basically everything.
Polarized stuff dissolves-in/sticks-to the water. the non-polar stuff goes to the fat side. This is also why foaming up your soap by vigorous rubbing works especially well – friction helps breaks the bad stuff off the surface of what you’re washing, and encourages something like emulsification.

Can we turn this into a garlic sauce for drizzling on foods by adding water? Is cream better?
EDIT: Yes. I tried adding an equal part of water to the oil I used after it was mayofied, which was too much. I’d start with 1/3 water to oil, and adjust from there.
I used 1 bulb of garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 3/4 cup oil. I suggest 1/4 cup of water after the toum is made, and that should make a good sauce. If it’s still too thick, add no more than 1 tbsp of water at a time, and give it a quick pulse with the immersion blender.

Final thoughts – I think this can be used as a substitute  for freshly minced garlic : 1 tsp toum per clove.
There’s some hardcore chemistry involving rapid cooling, phase inversion, and other StarTrek-sounding mumbojumbo, but since those involve gadgets, I’ll skip it.
EDIT more final thoughts – I was asked about roast garlic instead of fresh. I assumed the emulsifiers in the garlic would all be inert after roasting, and I was right. I tried salvaging the mayo with the usual methods: add a bit of hot water, starting a new batch with fresh garlic and slowly incorporating the broken emulsion didn’t work, but adding 1 egg white made it instantly come together. Normally I’d use an egg yolk to salvage mayo, but figured the proteins in the egg white would work just fine to get this started.