🍯 Professional Kitchen · Sauces
Honey-Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise
A generous batch of creamy mayonnaise flavoured with soft roasted garlic, honey and nutty brown butter.
Behind the plate
Roasted garlic mayonnaise is familiar; the combination of brown butter and honey gives this version a deeper restaurant character. The garlic becomes mellow in the oven while the butter supplies toasted hazelnut notes.
Cooling both cooked mixtures before they meet the mayonnaise protects the emulsion. Lemon, salt and pepper are added at the end so the sweetness can be balanced precisely.
Why this recipe works
Covered roasting turns garlic soft and sweet without burning it. Browning the butter develops nutty milk solids, and dissolving honey into the warm butter distributes it evenly. Cooling prevents the mayonnaise from thinning or splitting.
The recipe
Ingredients
- 5 litres mayonnaise
- 200 g garlic (the supplied method indicates whole heads)
- Olive oil, as needed for roasting
- 120 ml honey
- 100 ml butter, browned
- Fine salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Fresh lemon juice, to taste
Method
- Heat the oven to 205°C. Slice the tops from the garlic heads to expose the cloves, place in a roasting tray, drizzle lightly with olive oil and cover tightly with foil.
- Roast for 30–35 minutes, until the cloves are completely soft and lightly caramelised. Cool until safe to handle, then squeeze out the flesh.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan and continue cooking until the milk solids are golden brown and smell nutty. Remove from the heat immediately.
- Stir the honey into the brown butter to form an even caramel-like mixture, then leave it to cool to room temperature.
- Blend or mash the roasted garlic until smooth. Fold it into the mayonnaise, followed gradually by the cooled honey-butter mixture.
- Season with salt, black pepper and lemon juice. Cover, label and refrigerate promptly.
Chef’s notes
- Confirm whether the supplied 200 g garlic is the weight of whole heads or prepared cloves before standardising the recipe.
- Brown butter can move from nutty to burnt quickly; remove it from the heat as soon as the milk solids are amber.
- Never add hot garlic or butter to mayonnaise. Both must be cool to protect the emulsion and food safety.
- Use pasteurised commercial mayonnaise for this production recipe and follow its refrigerated shelf-life instructions.
At the table
Serve with fried chicken, roast potatoes, grilled vegetables, burgers or warm sourdough.