Toum

Toum: Step by Step

Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.

1. Blitz the garlic and salt in a tall narrow food processor to a fine paste, stopping twice to scrape down the sides. Every piece must be broken.

   Mark done

2. Add 1 tbsp of the lemon juice and blitz again to a smooth, pale slurry.

   Mark done

3. With the motor running, add the oil in the thinnest thread you can manage. For the first 150 ml this should feel absurdly slow.

   Mark done

4. Once it has visibly thickened and turned white, alternate: a tablespoon of lemon or ice water, then more oil, keeping the thread thin.

   Mark done

5. Continue until all the oil is in and the sauce stands up in stiff peaks like a meringue.

   Mark done

6. Scrape into a jar and refrigerate at least 60 minutes before serving; the raw heat softens considerably as it sits.

   Mark done

Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Rescuing a split sauce.

Something wrong or unclear in this recipe? Report a problem with this recipe.

Keep an Eye on These

1. Remove the green germ from every clove or the sauce turns bitter.
2. A thin thread of oil. Rushing the first cup is what splits it.
3. If it splits, start over with one clove and add the broken sauce as if it were oil.

If You're Missing Something

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

The Short Version

Toum is an emulsion held together by the mucilage in raw garlic, and there is very little of it — so the oil has to go in slowly enough that every drop is broken up before the next arrives. A thin thread for the first cup, no faster. Pull the germ out of each clove first, too: the green shoot is where the bitterness lives, and in a sauce that is four-fifths oil there is nothing else to hide behind. If it splits, it can be rescued: start again with one fresh clove and dribble the broken sauce into it as if it were oil.

To Go With It

Grilled chicken · Arayes · Batata harra

Keeping Toum

Refrigerated in a sealed jar for 3 weeks. It mellows over the first few days. Do not freeze — it separates.

Common Questions

Toum Nutrition Facts

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

Your own rating out of 5

5 stars★ 4 stars★ 3 stars★ 2 stars★ 1 star★

Your note

Save note

Private to you: notes and ratings are saved in this browser only, are never sent anywhere, and other readers cannot see them.