Where does aioli come from?

Is aioli the same as mayonnaise? To find out, let’s look at the ingredients. Aioli comes from French, from a combination of the words ai (meaning “garlic”) and oli (meaning “oil”)—making both the word and the food itself literally a mashup of garlic and oil. Those two ingredients are staples of the Mediterranean region, so it’s no wonder the people there have been combining them for thousands of years—even the Ancient Romans made something like aioli.

The word aioli is a more recent addition to English, with the first records of its use from around the late 1800s. Aioli is a staple in the Provence region of France, where it’s traditional to add egg to the mixture to help emulsify it (bond it into a paste so the oil doesn’t separate from the rest). Farther down the Mediterranean coast, in Spain, it’s traditional to make it by mashing garlic (and a little bit of salt) into a paste with a mortar and pestle and slowly adding oil until it comes together.

Mayonnaise is traditionally made with egg yolks, lemon juice, and oil, making it pretty close to French-style aioli, especially if it’s seasoned with garlic.

In the Mediterranean region, aioli is often used to top seafood and vegetables. In the United States and other places where the term is used more loosely, aioli often shows up on menus as a fancier way of saying mayo, especially when served as a dip or as a condiment for burgers and other sandwiches.