condiment substitutions

QUESTION FROM A READER: (My reply follows)

As I’ve posted earlier, I’m currently weeding through lots of information and coming up with things I need to find healthy substitutes for. Condiments in general seem to be a big challenge.

One of the things I’ve been looking at is Mayonnaise. I didn’t buy anything I’ve seen at the organic stores because they had soybean oil (ugh), soy lecithin (ugh ugh), or other oils that weren’t good. However, I have found several recipes to “Make Your Own”. There are lots of variations, and I was wondering if anyone had tried any of them? Is it something similar to the recipe I’ve listed below? My big problem is that I haven’t been brave enough to try it yet for one main reason……it uses raw egg, as do all of the “make your own mayo” recipes that I found. Every since raw eggs became taboo I have concerns especially since I’ll be feeding it to a 7 and 8 year old. Again, the one I listed below looked to meet my needs the most minus the use of raw egg.

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Mayonnaise with olive oil (Adapted from Basic Mayonnaise from Donna Hay’s Modern Classics Book I)
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- In a blender or food processor, process the egg, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper until well combined.
- While the motor is running, pour the oil in a slow, thin, steady stream and process until the mixture is thick and creamy (with the emulsifying disc it came together very quickly…not bad at all for its first time out). hint: best adding the oil 1/4 tsp at a time
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• So, does anybody have a good argument for why raw egg is not a problem? Another problem is what to store it in? My last problem is how long does it keep?
• Also looking for a good ranch recipe.
• And a good ketchup recipe that’s easy to make. I’ve seen a few but I they all seem to use sugar/splenda/brown sugar instead of something like honey.

Any suggestions/input would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. If anyone knows the equivalent substitution for using honey versus sugar/spend/brown sugar it would be helpful.

MY REPLY:

Hi Jen,

• When using honey in place of sugars (I’ve never used Splenda, so I don’t know about that), I usually don’t replace ALL of the sugar with honey, or it has a very strong honey taste (although it depends on what you’re making – you don’t notice it so much with chocolate recipes). I often will replace maybe half the refined sugar with honey, then use organic sugar (only if you have to), maple sugar, or maple syrup for the other half. The My Dark Secrets post has a ton of info in the comments. Kimi has good info about natural sweeteners at her blog, too.
• MAYO UPDATE:  Try my mayo recipe that I’ve finally perfected!!!  Also:  you can store HM mayo in a pint-sized mason/Ball jar.  There’s a lot more great scoop on mayo in the comments!!
• Raw eggs: you don’t need to fear them IF you are getting them from a farm that have their chickens out on pasture, and who are not fed any junk. (Hormones, antibiotics, soy, etc.) We eat a LOT of raw eggs here, in our smoothies, our “protein drinks“, our ice cream, etc. They are full of nutrition, especially when uncooked!
• There is a recipe for fermented ketchup (super nutritious) in the NT cookbook which you’ll find at the mayo link above. If anyone makes the NT ketchup, please let us know – is it easy? How does it taste?
• Lastly, check out this post for info on ranch dressing, and be sure to read the comments there for some great homemade ranch recipe info.

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