Alioli

How to start an argument in the western Mediterranean: Ask any two people what alioli or aïoli is. The only thing you’ll learn in the ensuing discussion is where the people involved are from. Let me try to pick apart the differences (both real and imagined) before we get into how to make your own awesome version of salsa alioli to dip your fried potatoes in.

First, I must denounce my American kitchen brethren. Not every flavored mayonnaise is an aïoli, and pretty much none of them are an alioli. A garlic mayonnaise can be a proper aïoli. But there is no such thing as a hyphenated aïoli. Whether you believe in eggs or not, the predominant flavor of an aïoli or alioli, is garlic. Not anything else. That is essentially the only thing anyone can agree on, and bad American chefs calling every compound mayo an aïoli are hereby forbidden from being a part of the discussion. And if your menu has ever contained the phrase “garlic aioli”, you are, quite literally, the problem.

Next, I must denounce the culinary revanchists of all sorts. There is no ur-alioli that will once and for all settle whether or not the egg-less or egg-stabilized camp is right. Unless you, in your historical zeal, wish to declare every modern claim to be wrong. You will find across the internet, claims of Pliny the Elder (procurator of Tarragona (Catalonia) from 23-79 CE) describing the local alioli sauce as ‘when garlic is “beaten up in oil and vinegar it swells up in foam to a surprising size”.’ This very selective definition is often linked back to an article and recipe by Clifford A Wright from 2007. What Mr. Wright does not disclose however, is a citation for that quote. Whether that is intentional or simply an editorial oversight, I have no opinion on.

What I do know however, is where the quote comes from. It comes from Pliny's Natural History Book 19 and is, in full

“Ulpicum also comes in this class, the plant called by the Greeks Cyprian garlic, or by others antiscorodon; it holds a high rank among the dishes of the country people, particularly in Africa, and it is larger than garlic; when beaten up in oil and vinegar it swells up in foam to a surprising size.”

Obviously, this is not a description of garlic, nor of anything in Tarragona.

More interestingly, there is robust modern scholarship that accurately identifies Pliny’s Ulpicum as Allium ampeloprasum L. – commonly called Elephant Garlic. Regardless of the word garlic in the name, elephant garlic is not a culinary substitute for common garlic, being that it contains very high moisture levels and foams when cooking.

So what we do have is a much (much) later collection of sauces including aïoli from Provence, aillade from Languedoc, and salsa alioli from Catalonia. The secret that the Catalans won’t admit publicly, is that all of them contain egg, for the simple reason that physics works in Catalonia exactly the same way it works in the rest of the world, and garlic and oil do not mix without an emulsifier.

All of this is to say, ignore the pedants. They are, at best, misinformed. At worst they are peddling a fake origin story for gastro-nationalist purposes scarcely distinguishable from the most brazen balderdash of the Verona tourism board claiming to be the true home of the balcony of Juliet Capulet, a fictional character written by a man who never visited Verona.

What does actually matter is how damned good this sauce is. Make some and see.

Ingredients

• 1 egg yolk. Come at me Catalan-bro.
• 1 clove garlic.
• 60 ml neutral oil. Canola and grapeseed are both vastly superior to olive in this context.
• 1 pinch salt.
• 1 pinch paprika.
• 1/2 lemon, juiced.

Instructions

1. Press your garlic clove, and put it in a small mixing bowl.
2. Separate your egg and add the yolk to the garlic. Stir a bit to combine.
3. Add a pinch of salt and a pinch of paprika if you are using it. Stir a bit.
4. Stick an immersion blender into your mixing bowl and slowly drizzle in the neutral oil while the blender is running. This will take a few minutes if you are adding the oil slow enough.
5. Repeat with the oil. When it is all incorporated and light and fluffy, taste and adjust with the lemon juice.