eating my words

Behind the scenes and on the road with Southern Living Executive Food Editor, Scott Jones

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01/09/2008
Mayo Extravaganza!
By Scott Jones

Every once in a while, the Food staff is called upon to conduct culinary “field study” that’s truly specialized.  Such was the day we taste tested seven – that’s right! – seven different mayonnaises (and, yes, there’s a plural form of mayonnaise).

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I assure you, this exercise wasn’t for the faint of heart…or stomach.  We evaluated several popular brands, including Bama, Blue Plate, Kraft, Hellmann’s, and Dukes.  We also sampled just about every incarnation of mayo (i.e. light, fat free) within the respective brands.  We tried to make everything as scientific and objective as possible by assigning a letter to each mayo.

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We knew the players, but had no idea which container was which.  Of course, as an unwavering Hellmann’s Light man, I knew that one cold.  I suspect there were other discerning palates at the table who could ID their favorites a mile away as well.  Be that as it may, we got down to the serious business of analyzing everything from creaminess to acidity to texture.  When the final plastic tasting spoon hit the table, Blue Plate just did beat out Hellmann’s as best overall.  Hellmann’s Light was the clear champ of the “Light or Fat Free” category. 

As we all sat back and joked about how much mayo we’d eaten that day (and taking bets on who might lose it first), we reflected on the fact that, despite how absurd the notion of taste testing mayonnaise sounds, it was actually an enlightening exercise that, among other things, made us realize just how fun – if not a tad odd – our job can be.

What's your favorite mayo?  Care to share your most memorable mayo story?

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Comments

I laughed out loud when I read this post! My husband and I have an all-natural gourmet spice business and every week we make up samples of our 11 dip mixes to serve at the Fort Pierce Farmers Market! We also had a taste test to choose the best-tasting mayonnaise for our samples. We felt a little queasy by the conclusion of the test, but we chose Hellmann's as our favorite! Since then we always mix our dip samples with Hellmann's Mayonnaise and Breakstone (or Daisy) Sour Cream!

Posted by:Theresa Dormi | 03/14/2008 at 02:01 PM

I've heard of a banana mayo sandwich...yuck.

Posted by:Kristy | 02/15/2008 at 11:08 AM

I love hearing about the weird things people put mayonnaise on -- so far my 3 favorites are black-eyed peas, cornbread, and peanut butter sandwiches.

Posted by:Jen | 01/29/2008 at 09:55 AM
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