DON’T HOLD THE MAYO
Common condiment a secret weapon for delectable grilling
This is the season of outdoor parties and cookouts, as self-professed grill masters and weekend warriors deftly show off livefire cooking skills in front of family and friends. That is, until the grill flares up and those beautiful steaks are reduced to charcoal and we’re peeling them off the grill through a cloud of smoke.
It’s an all-too-common tragedy. What if there was an easier way?
My challenge was always fish, which would glue itself to the grill whether I oiled the fillets or the grill racks, or both. Then I noticed restaurant chef Michael Cimarusti lightly brush delicate halibut fillets with mayonnaise before grilling. Yes, mayo. He explained that the mayonnaise keeps the fish from sticking to the grill. He adds a very thin layer, “so it’s almost not there.”
This isn’t the first I’d heard about cooking with mayonnaise. It’s often touted as the fat of choice, particularly when making a grilled cheese sandwich. But what about the grill? “This is an area I’m playing a lot more with now. Mayonnaise really works,” said Meathead Goldwyn, founder of the popular website AmazingRibs. com and author of “Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling.” “It sticks really well to the food, helps release food from the hot grill surface, and gets a beautiful golden color.”
Part of the reason mayonnaise works so well is because of its composition. “Mayonnaise is an emulsion, which means you have small droplets of oil surrounded by egg yolk, and that has a couple of really cool properties,” said Greg Blonder, professor of product design and engineering at Boston University and co-author of Goldwyn’s cookbook.
This emulsion allows the oils in mayonnaise to stick to food, unlike plain oil. Oil and water don’t mix, which is why it’s hard to get the fat to adhere to foods you want to grill.
“Mayonnaise acts like little time-release oil capsules, and you can put it on thick. And the emulsifiers like to stick to the meat,” Blonder said. Mayonnaise is a great release agent for meat, and is particularly helpful for grilling chicken and fish.
Where oil only heats and browns the food thermally, mayonnaise also browns food chemically — that goldenbrown color — through the Maillard reaction, which requires sugars and proteins to work; as these are heated, the nonenzymatic reaction produces browning. “When you just put regular oil on meat, it doesn’t bring these to the table. It only brings fat,” Blonder said.
Mayonnaise may help foods retain moisture as they cook on the grill. “Chicken breasts — they’re the world’s driest food. Mayo is one way to make them moist,” Goldwyn said.
One of the reasons people may be afraid to try mayonnaise is flavor. “They think it will add flavor. But that’s the thing. It doesn’t alter the flavor” of the food, Goldwyn said.
Mayonnaise works well as a vehicle for other flavors. “It’s a white canvas you can flavor with almost anything,” Goldwyn said, including just about anything in your spice rack. “I call it mayo mojo.”
Serves 4
MARINATED TOMATO SALAD
¼ cup olive oil 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon salt Freshly ground black pepper
¼ red onion, very thinly sliced lengthwise
6 large basil leaves, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons capers, drained and crushed 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 pints ripe grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
In a non-reactive bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and several grinds of black pepper. Stir in the onion, basil, capers and garlic. Gently fold in the tomatoes. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving, up to overnight.
GRILLED AVOCADO 2 large ripe avocados 2 to 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Prepared marinated tomato salad
Halve the avocados and discard the seeds. Brush the cut interior of the avocados with a layer of mayonnaise (this will also keep them from browning before grilling). Season each half with a sprinkling of salt and a couple grinds of pepper.
Heat a grill over medium-high heat until hot.
Place the avocados cut-side down on a grill rack. Grill the halves for a couple of minutes. Using tongs, rotate the halves slightly for good grill marks and grill for another couple of minutes. Remove to a serving platter, cutside up.
Spoon the tomato salad over the avocados and serve immediately.