I live in the UK, and the thing I thought summed up the British and Irish obsession with mayonnaise best was when I recently bought a hoi sin duck wrap at the local Tesco and it had "No mayo" in big letters on the front, as if the lack of may was something highly unusual and/or edgy.
Since then I've looked at the ingredient list of every other product with great suspicion, expecting to find mayo everwhere...
I'd be pretty surprised if I bought a product named "Just Mayo" that didn't contain actual mayonnaise, but I guess it fits into the same pattern as American "cheese".
Are you in US? If so, I'm not sure you've ever tried it - what we have marketed and sold as mayonnaise here is something very different (and indeed, quite disturbing) substance: the color, texture and, obviously, the taste is quite different. I used to think that mustard is absent in US as well, but then I found that it's actually sold as "English mustard" but I haven't found real mayonnaise yet...
FWIW, I've noticed mayonnaise, even the industrial one, is drastically different between countries (i.e. strong lemon aroma, different consistency etc).
So it's called "Just Mayo," mayonnaise being a food product that contains eggs by definition, and has a picture of an egg on its label. But it isn't mayonnaise and doesn't contain eggs. Maybe the hipster irony is just lost on me.
For anyone in the UK looking for the same kind of mayonnaise that you get in Belgium, the closest I've found is this Polish one, available from Tesco or your local Polski sklep.
Indeed, you're right. I thought at its most basic it is just egg whites and oil, but googling that specifically says mustard is part of the recipe.
So it's still a mystery why McDonalds doesn't just call it Mayonnaise when the ingredients are pretty much identical to every other mayonnaise out there, including Hellmann's REAL Mayonnaise.
Maybe it's one of those "It's only X if it comes from the X region" type issues. It just makes it sound suspicious for no discernable reason. Like buying a bottle of "Wet 'water' style beverage."
I moved from the US to Ireland a year ago, and while I love it here the constant vigilance against sandwiches slathered in mayonnaise and butter can be exhausting. I go to the sandwich shop and they helpfully ask "Butter or mayo?" - to which I respond "mustard", and immediately reveal myself as an outsider.
I thought garlic fries, like the sort at Giants games, were delicious! Some garlic, olive oil, parmesan, etc. I was shocked to discover that here and in the UK garlic chips consist of chips (fries) with garlic-accented mayonnaise spread all over them.
And don't call it Aoli. That's just dressing up a disgusting condiment with a fancy word.
Traditional Mayonnaise used olive oil, most companies use soybean oil now for it's preservative properties and low price. I can't buy a 100% olive oil mayo, but Hellman's gets to cry about eggs?
As somebody who doesn't ever buy mayonnaise (not a fan), I'd actually find that confusing.
Until this article, I didn't know that real mayonnaise was supposed to contain eggs. Maybe all mayonaise is naturally vegan? So I'd probably buy this thinking it was pretty much the same as other mayonnaise products on the shelf (other than the fancy packaging).
Not that I'd really be buying mayo anytime soon. ;)
Since then I've looked at the ingredient list of every other product with great suspicion, expecting to find mayo everwhere...
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