The Mayo Brand Alton Brown Wants You To Use For French Onion Dip
Compared to flashier, more substantial ingredients in sandwiches, dips, and pasta salads, mayonnaise may seem like a mere afterthought. In actuality, however, mayonnaise has the potential to change the flavor composition of your favorite foods, whether you're upgrading your homemade lobster roll with Kewpie mayonnaise or sprucing up macaroni salad with a sour cream and mayonnaise duo. Celebrity chef Alton Brown understands the importance of a carefully chosen mayonnaise, and prefers one particular brand when making French onion dip. That brand is Duke's mayonnaise — a Southern classic with a distinctive flavor.
In a video for his YouTube page, Brown singled out Duke's mayonnaise as an essential ingredient in his French onion dip recipe. Duke's brand, which comes from North Carolina, "has a little bit of apple cider vinegar," per Brown — which gives the ingredient a specific flavor profile. Namely, Brown prefers a tangy mayonnaise, as Duke's uses both apple cider and distilled vinegar. The brand's mayonnaise also contains soybean oil, eggs, water, salt, and other ingredients, maintaining the same general characteristics of most all jars of mayonnaise — but with its own, brand-specific tang.
As for how Brown utilizes the mayonnaise? It is just one ingredient amongst many, but plays an important, pivotal role in brining his dip together.
Use Duke's mayonnaise as a base for your next French onion dip
Onion dip may be served as a side, but Alton Brown's recipe makes an otherwise simple onion dip the star of any meal. That's because he chooses each ingredient carefully, from the type of onions — yellow — to the brand of mayonnaise. Specifically, Brown relies on ¾ of a cup of his beloved Duke's mayonnaise, which he mixes with roughly 1 and a ½ cups of sour cream. That sour cream therefore takes more of a front seat in the overall dip, but the mayonnaise remains of equal importance; it adds flavor and a requisite richness that works to bring the dip together. Brown then finishes his dip mixture with garlic powder, white pepper, and, of course, caramelized onions.
To replicate his technique, you can easily order a jar of Duke's on Amazon in either squeeze bottle and jar form. If you're not up for making the entire dip from scratch, you can alternatively stir a packet of French onion dip mix into a sour cream and mayonnaise concoction. You're guaranteed a dip that's delicious — and with the perfect amount of tang.