Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Real Aioli for Real

I don’t usually like to put words like “real” or “classic” in front of recipe names, since who the hell really knows, but in the case this aioli, I’m feeling pretty confident. In its purest form, this amazing sauce is nothing more than olive oil emulsified into freshly crushed garlic, seasoned simply with salt and lemon.

It arguably the greatest cold sauce of all time. Speaking of cold, the health benefits of regular aioli consumption are legendary. There’s not much not to like here, unless you don’t like garlic, then there’s plenty. This is pure, fiery, intense garlic flavor like you may have never tasted. It’s also a clever trick to get you to buy a wooden, or marble mortar and pestle.

Sure, if you don’t have one you can smash the garlic against the cutting board, with the flat of a large knife, and sort of do the same thing, but you don’t get the extra pulverization when emulsifying the oil.  And it’s all about the pulverization.  That’s what releases all those volatile compounds in the garlic, producing aioli’s signature flavor. I really hope you give this a try soon.  Enjoy!


Ingredients for about  2/3 cup Real Aioli:
4 large FRESH garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or other course grain salt
1 to 2 teaspoons freshly sqeezed lemon juice or vinegar, or to taste
1/2 cup *light flavored extra virgin olive oil
1 or 2 teaspoons of water to adjust texture 

- Note: This is best eaten fresh, but should be okay for about 24 hours

* Since this sauce has such a sharp, hot flavor from the garlic, you don’t want to use a really strongly flavored olive oil. We don’t want anything too peppery and bitter, which will clash with the garlic. Use something on the mild side, or cut with a neutral vegetable oil.

27 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John!

A quick question for you. Here in Aus(-tralia, not -tria) our home lime tree has had a massive crop. Would lime juice be suitable here, and would this change the flavour much at all?

Thanks!

Unknown said...

If I use a super fancy extra virgin olive oil, do I have to worry about it becoming bitter while I mix it in the mortar? Or does the emulsion process somehow prevent the typical over-agitated olive oil flavor from happening?

Unknown said...

Simple and promising, thanks for sharing! :)
Fresh garlic doesn't store too well, even in a refrigerator. Any suggestions on how long I can keep this sauce in a fridge?

Madeline said...

Chef Jon,
My questions is unrelated to the Aioli, though that sounds amazing.
I am desperately searching for a recipe that I believe could have been removed from your site (It has disappeared).
It was like a chicken and rice casserole. I remember it had rice, heavy cream, thyme, bone-in chicken breast...
AM I crazy or was this at one time your recipe?

Madeline said...

Chef Jon,
I am desperately searching for a recipe that I am sure you once had on your blog. I feel like it has disappeared. It was for a chicken and rice casserole, with chicken, rice, thyme, mushrooms, heavy cream, bone-in chicken thigh... do you have any idea where this could have gone to?
Sorry that this is unrelated to the Aioli, that looks awesome.
Thank you!

Unknown said...

mmmm...garlic!! I love this sauce! Question: did the freakishly small wooden spoon come with the wood mortar and pestle?

Alex in Shanghai said...

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John,

Thank you for the recipe. How long can you store this in the fridge? or is it possible to freeze it? Thank you!

Stacy said...

How long can it be stored for and what is the best way?

Unknown said...

I don't get it, I've been trying to make thoom for years. It always ends up as a milk shake consistency... the oil doesn't separate but it's not airy like yours is chef John... what am I doing wrong?

BexC said...

Hope means there is a bouillabaisse recipe to accompany this aioli recipe?!

Unknown said...

Hey Chef John,
Whats the brand of the wooden mortar and pestle your using?

Thank you!

Unknown said...

Mash some peeled, boiled potatoes in with that aioli blend and you'll have Greek skordalia sauce. Great on boiled fish.

Billy MacKenzie said...

Pretty much been keeping the olive oil to my Greek Salads theses days and using Avocado oil for pretty much everything else.

I'll give this a try with both those oils.

...and as always Thanks.

schneida said...

We tried this today and it looked really really promising at first. We finished adding all the oil and it looked exactly like in your video. But after like 5 minutes the oil and the garlic completely seperated and we are now left with garlic infused oil :-(

We used lime but everything else exactly the same...

What did we do wrong?

Peter said...

Would this work on top of bread/toast to make garlic bread?

Ben said...

I'm a big fan of the mortar and pestle. And I'm a big fan of garlic immulsion sauce/paste (whatever it's named). But I gotta be honest, this recipe works so much better in a blender or food processor than the old fashioned way. Faster, less work, better texture, holds its texture longer and can be done in bigger batches. Cuz you can never have enough of this stuff on hand! And to those asking, it can last weeks in the fridge.

Ben said...

Peter, as a spread on bread it's amazing. For baked garlic bread though fresh garlic will work much better from a flavor and texture stand point and be less greasy.

ozzzzzz said...

Made this earlier to serve with steamed artichokes. I even picked up an olive wood mortar and pestle just for the job!

My first attempt failed as the mixture separated on me when I was about 2/3 of the way through the oil. The second attempt worked (I drizzled more slowly and I think this made the difference). I regret to say, however, that the flavour was just so intense that I don't think anyone had more than one taste with the artichokes. I may have done something wrong, but it tasted like I was just eating a clove of raw garlic. I expected it to be garlicky and intense (which I love) but this was on another level. A five course meal later and now having brushed my teeth, it's still all I can taste! Maybe I accidentally used bad olive oil? Maybe I somehow didn't use enough oil?

I'd love to make it again - it was really fun to do and makes for a cool little dish of sauce to serve your guests. I just need to figure out 1) if what I made tasted as it should and 2) if not, what I did wrong. What do you think, Chef john? Am I just an aioli noob?

xD said...

Hi Chef, can you tell why my garlic just turned black/gray =(

Unknown said...

We tried two times, and it separated two times (both times towards the end). I guess next time I'll cheat and add a bit of egg yolk.

Hamletmander said...

I'm wondering if you can think up any ideas (presentational or otherwise) for a savory main dish on Halloween.
Like a steak or chicken or pasta or something.

I guess that's not very specific though...

GT said...

Chef John,

This recipe looks great, and it seems simple enough to make; however, I've tried it twice and both times not much of an emulsion has formed, leaving me with just some pungent oil. I used a pestle and mortar in the first instance, grinding the hell out of the garlic before adding any oil, and even then adding it as slowly as my patience would allow. No dice. The second time I used a blender, again, adding the oil very gradually, but still it didn't work. It's almost certainly my fault, and it may seem churlish to question the master, but are you sure these quantities are correct, sir? It seems like far too much oil for that amount of garlic to bind with.

Yours uselessly,

GT

Unknown said...

Am I missing something? The blogpost recipes show the ingredients, but not the cooking directions. Why?

Poingat Opinion said...

Dale Moser for cooking directions watch the video. Always watch the video.

Anonymous said...

To all those who are struggling to get this to work: there are too many variables in this recipe, such as the weight of the garlic and the size of the cup. I settled on 20g of garlic and 60g of oil (which is *half* of what the recipe suggests). If you add more oil than that, the emulsion will break.

I guess Chef John's garlic cloves are twice as big as mine?

AndyD273 said...

@GT
I think this recipe is asking for too much oil. It was looking really good for me, until I got a little more than half in, and it separated and turned into garlic oil.
I was able to rescue it by starting a second batch, spooning about half of the oil from the first batch into the second one, which ended up being just the right amount of oil, and then I added some more vinegar to the first batch and started blending it. The little extra acidity caused it to emulsify again nicely, and then I just combined the two batches.
Turned out pretty good, though I may have used slightly too much salt. Will adjust that next time.