I saw @julescooking on Instagram making black garlic mayo and wanted to give it a go. Pure curiosity – I’d never worked with black garlic before (even though I had some lying around) and it seemed like the kind of thing worth trying.

What went wrong

I think the black garlic and egg mix wasn’t smooth enough before I added the oil. I used an immersion blender, but black garlic is dense and sticky – it probably needed a small food processor to get properly smooth first. When I tried the standard lift method, it never caught. Just oil sitting on top of a lumpy, separated mess.

How I fixed it

I’d never rescued a split mayo before, but I had seen a method that worked, and wanted to give it a go. Turns out you start fresh – two new egg yolks and a small splash of grapeseed oil in a clean jug, blended until it just starts to emulsify. Then you slowly pour the broken mayo back in. Because the oil had separated to the top of the original jug, that went in first, and the emulsion kept taking it. The black garlic and egg mixture was sitting at the bottom, so it came in last. It all came together into a dark brown mayo that actually tasted exactly right.

If your mayo splits, don’t add more oil and hope. Start a fresh yolk base and pour the broken batch in slowly; whisk or blend and watch as the egg and oil emulsify.