Talk:Aioli

Ingredients

There seems to be some dispute about whether egg yolk and lemon juice are a standard ingredient in aioli. So I looked at some good books on Provençal cooking:

• J.-B. Reboul, La Cuisinière Provençale 1910 (1st edition); 1989 (25th edition), p. 88 — This is generally considered "the classic".
• Robert Courtine, The Hundred Glories of French Cooking (tr. Derek Coldman), 1973, p. 140
• Henri Philippon, Cuisine de Provence, 1977 (2nd ed), p. 20
• Mireille Johnston, The Cuisine of the Sun, 1976
• Prosper Montagné, Larousse Gastronomique (1938, tr. 1961), s.v. — This is generic French rather than specifically Provençal

and this is what I found:

Author	garlic cloves	egg yolks	oil	lemon	other
Reboul	2	1	50cl	one lemon	water, salt
Courtine	16 (5 oz.)	4	25cl	squeeze	2 boiled potatoes, salt
Philippon	6	1	75cl	some	water, salt
Johnston	8-10	2	37cl	one lemon	white pepper
Montagné	4	1	25 cl	—	salt

The proportions are all over the place, but all these recipes include egg yolk, and almost all include lemon juice. --Macrakis (talk) 19:56, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

Wanna resurface this comment because it's correct. This page as it stands is creating a lot of annoying Reddit know-it-alls, who are reading this weirdly prescriptivist article written by provincial Europeans, and ignoring the fact that, despite the sauce's all-i-oli origins, if you ask for aioli damn near anywhere on Earth outside of the Valencia/Catalan area, you will be served a sauce stabilized with eggs.

Matter of fact I'm going to Barca soon. Will report back on whether there's egg yolk in my alioli. If so I will make it my crusade to correct this page. 71.255.78.185 (talk) 01:16, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

None of those books, even the Reboul, comply with the true original recipe which calls only for ail (garlic) + oil. Those two ingredients are enough to make an emulsion (mixing immiscible liquids: i.e. here oil and water contained in the garlic - Refer e.g. Molecular Gastronomy by Hervé This ). Making the emulsion and keeping it stable is an art. Adding egg (white or yolk) help stabilize it, hence its use in today's recipes. Yet the true thing does not contain eggs, let alone lemon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by YPLeroux (talk • contribs) 22:47, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Dangling ref

I have located a dangling ref and hidden it, replacing it with a citation needed tag. This has been done because we have a reference pointing to a source that is not recorded in the article. Please feel free to contact me if you need assistance fixing this. - Aussie Article Writer (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 02:33, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

Derisive "traditionalists" throughout article

Ita odd that throughout the article, the tone seems to lament "traditionalists" and frames them as contrarians. The problem is that there is no "history" section that shows the evolution of the term, and there needs to be. There is an original recipe and method, and it's not some archaic food. Just as anything in a cocktail glass is now dubbed a "martini", nevertheless, gin and vermouth makes a martini, traditionalists not required. Aioli is garlic oil and salt, and anything else is a later addition or riff. They're all valid, but as an encyclopedia, this has a major tone issue. 189.216.40.154 (talk) 18:24, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

The biggest problem in my view is is that all the arguments made on the talk page for not including eggs in the article description are all backed by references to "the traditional recipe", "the canonical recipe", "the original recipe", etc, yet never is any source provided.

Even the source currently in the article for this view, a 2008 cookbook, is just "purists say" — and then goes on to differentiate between allioli and aioli:

Spanish purists insist that the ultimate all-i-oli (also called ajoaceite) is made only from garlic cloves, pounded to a paste in a mortar, and olive oil, added drop by drop to make a thick sauce. This old-fashioned method requires not a little skill and a saint's patience. Most modern cooks use a machine and an egg, so today all all-i-oli is basically a very garlicky mayonnaise, quite similar to aïoli.

So right now, barring any other sources that show a traditional recipe without eggs, "purists say" or "traditionalists say" would seem in my eyes to be correct. — g026r (talk) 22:01, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

The article right now doesn't even seem to present the idea that there are aioli recipes that include eggs and lemon. It's just incredibly misleading at the moment. john k (talk) 19:55, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

"it is found in the cuisines of the northwest Mediterranean, from Valencia to Nice"

I don't have a source to establish that regular use of aioli extends well beyond Nice, but the claim that it stops at Nice does not sound at all credible. I know from personal experience (the despicable "original research") that in the other direction it doesn't stop at Valencia. Some adjustment is needed in the text, with good sources. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 16:15, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

It would be easiest to remove this over-specific statement completely, and rely on what is said in the next paragraph about regions of origin. Ponsonby100 (talk) 16:18, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

Done. --Jotamar (talk) 17:33, 18 November 2023 (UTC)