[ ./recipes/sauces/aioli.md ]
★ FRENCH · SAUCES
Aïoli.
SERVES
6
TOTAL
20m
ACTIVE
20m
LVL
MEDIUM
// SUMMARY
The Provençal original: garlic pounded to a paste in a mortar, then brought up with an egg yolk and olive oil into a thick, pungent emulsion you can stand a spoon in. This is not garlic stirred into mayonnaise — pounding ruptures the garlic cells properly, which both releases the sticky compounds that help the emulsion hold and gives a rounder, less acrid flavour than a blender ever will. Traditionally served with salt cod, boiled vegetables, grilled fish and bourride.
// INGREDIENTS
| 4 | cloves garlic, green germ removed | |
| 0.5 | tsp | coarse sea salt |
| 1 | egg yolk, room temperature | |
| 200 | ml | olive oil, fruity rather than aggressively peppery |
| 1 | tsp | lemon juice |
| 1 | tsp | warm water |
// METHOD
- 01
Halve each garlic clove and flick out the green germ in the centre — it is the harsh, bitter part and it never softens.
- 02
Pound the garlic with the coarse salt in a mortar until you have a completely smooth, sticky paste with no visible fragments. This takes 2–3 minutes and is the step people rush. The salt works as the abrasive.
- 03
Add the egg yolk and work it into the paste with the pestle until glossy and uniform.
- 04
Start adding the olive oil drop by drop, turning the pestle in a steady circular motion — never whisking. Keep going until the mixture visibly thickens and takes on a pale, satiny look.
- 05
Once it is holding, add the oil in a thin, slow stream, still turning constantly. It should become stiff enough that the pestle leaves a trail.
- 06
Loosen with the lemon juice and the warm water, which also makes the emulsion more stable. Season with salt to taste.
- 07
Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving — the garlic keeps developing and the texture settles.
// NOTES
- — Everything at room temperature. A fridge-cold yolk is the single most common reason an aïoli refuses to take.
- — Use new-season garlic when you can get it. Old garlic that has started to sprout is sharp and acrid no matter how well you pound it.
- — If your olive oil is very bitter or peppery, the emulsion amplifies it. Either pick a softer oil or make it half olive, half neutral.
- — If it splits, start again with a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and beat the broken mixture into it drop by drop, exactly as you did with the oil. Nothing is wasted.
- — It is stiffer than mayonnaise on purpose — a proper aïoli holds its shape on the spoon.
- — Raw yolk and raw garlic: keep it covered in the fridge and eat it within 2 days.
- — Very good with the braised artichokes in this book, and with anything from the grill.
// VARIATIONS
- → Allioli (egg-free): The Catalan original — only garlic, salt and olive oil, emulsified by the garlic alone. Pound the garlic to a paste, then add the oil drop by drop with immense patience. It breaks easily and takes 20 minutes, but it is the purest version there is.
- → Rouille: Add a pinch of saffron, a little cayenne and a slice of bread soaked in fish stock. For bouillabaisse.
- → With bread or potato: A spoonful of soaked stale breadcrumb or a little cooked potato pounded into the garlic makes the emulsion far more forgiving — common in home kitchens across Provence.
- → Blender method: For reliability, pound the garlic in the mortar first, then move it to a tall container with the yolk and blend the oil in with a stick blender. Blending raw garlic from scratch is what makes it acrid, so do not skip the mortar.