The miracle ingredient - Mayo?

Interesting article by Kenji Lopez

I’ve been a long time believer in Mayo for grilled cheese, but haven’t tried it directly on meats or in marinades for meats. Will have to give that a try. His logic seems sound, and he’s usually right.

The oil prevents sticking, while the egg proteins caramelize.

I’ve heard about mayo on grilled cheese for a long time. Having tried it, I get just as good of a browned crust along each side of the bread without it, and I don’t like the taste of even a little mayonnaise on the bread. I don’t eat most meats, so I have no opinion on that, but the taste of mayonnaise is very strong and often unpleasant to me.

It’s quite benign on grilled cheese but I haven’t tried it on meat.

i was skeptical of this but tried it on some pork not long ago and it worked very well, certainly a better sear than butter alone. there was no residual mayo taste either. however, i don’t see the point in doing this for fattier meats though like wagyu.

I’ve been following Kenji’s ideas and tests for years, and while he’s right about just about everything, including mayo on meat, I’ll die on the grilled cheese hill. Butter continues to give me a better result.

I think I posted on here a while ago a side-by-side comparison of a mayo vs normal sear. Although I couldn’t taste any mayo, I also couldn’t convince myself that it made any difference to the sear. I’ve been meaning to try it again.

+1 for me. I tried mayo the first time this news was posted and didn’t see the point.

Well, this is how I was taught as a kid - Mayo was simply easier to spread as we kept our butter in the fridge.

As I aged, I retained this model, but also throw a pat of butter in to make sure the best of both worlds can be enjoyed.

You can leave the butter out, so that it warms and softens. :wink:

We’ve taken to leaving a partial stick of butter out all the time. It never goes back into the refrigerator. It has been a real game changer for us.

Mayo was commonly used as the main ingredient in marinade for salmon over 30 years ago.

Just made some awesome pork chops with mayo; it does give a fantastic crust.

Gabrielle Hamilton wrote about this several years ago (in one of her sister’s Canal House cookbooks snicker) and it inspired me to use it on my standing rib roast.
I take several tablespoons of mayo and mix in fresh minced herbs and a little salt (taking into account what’s already in the mayo) and pepper.

It does an amazing job on the prime rib.

I use it often for fish. Really helps to avoid it sticking to the grill. Also had good results with asparagus.

Anyone try it on a prime rib roast? I am intrigued, but wonder if it leaves a tacky congealed film behind. Will be doing the reverse sear method, so it will be sitting on the roast at 200-250 F until the final blast at the end. Would love the extra browning it potentially gives you, but don’t want to screw up the roast. Thanks in advance for whomever chimes in!

I usually put it on right before the sear, it works well.

Think that is better than up front? Why choose just before the sear? And do you do a very thin layer? Or thicker? Thanks.

Very thin layer. I do that for things I sous vide too.