Garlic and oil emulsion
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?
Best Answer
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:
- Smash the garlic up into a fine paste before adding oil
- 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).
- Optionally, cheat and add an egg yolk (beaten) for every clove or two of garlic (it is no longer a true allioli though).
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Quick Answer about "Garlic and oil emulsion"
Authentic alioliIs garlic a good emulsifier?
Highlights. Garlic aqueous extract is a source of emulsifiers (proteins and saponins). At low garlic content emulsions with small droplet sizes are achieved (d32 = 0.36 \u03bcm). At higher garlic concentrations depletion and bridging flocculation phenomena occur.What happens when you mix garlic and oil?
Garlic in oil is very popular, but homemade garlic in oil can cause botulism if not handled correctly. Unrefrigerated garlic-in-oil mixes can foster the growth of clostridium botulinum bacteria, which produces poisons that do not affect the taste or smell of the oil.How do you make oil emulsify?
How do you form an emulsion? If you add a drop or two of oil to water you can see that it does not dissolve or combine with the water: the oil floats on the water. If you shake the oil and water together then the oil breaks up into tiny droplets and becomes distributed in the water forming a mixture.What is emulsion oil used for?
Used in moisturizing products and food products such as milk, mayonnaise and vinaigrette, o/w emulsions contain a low oil concentration. They are mixable with water, non-greasy, non-occlusive and will absorb water. The dispersion medium in these emulsions is water; o/w emulsifiers keep oil drops packed in water.How garlic can emulsify sauces (aioli, alioli, allioli, aïoli, toum, etc)
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Answer 2
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.
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