Blending garlic into a smooth paste releases emulsifiers contained within its cell walls, which stabilizes the sauce without using eggs.
Alternating the addition of oil with a small amount of lemon juice and water prevents the emulsion from becoming overwhelmed with oil and breaking.
Whenever my husband and I order delivery from our favorite Lebanese place, the center of the meal isn’t the chicken shawarma or the mixed grill for two—it’s the potent garlic sauce, toum. Despite my desperate messages for extra toum, they never pack more than three two-ounce containers of the stuff. I carefully ration the precious substance, but my husband mindlessly finishes his tub and a half and descends onto my share, leaving me forced to recalibrate each of my smears and paw hysterically at empty containers.
Thankfully, toum is pretty easy to make and stays fresh in the fridge for a month, so there’s no reason to not always have a surplus. Ever since realizing this, I’ve been able to focus on more important things during dinner—like constructing the perfect bite of shish tawook, charred onion, and pickles on my fork.
