Toum sure can be finicky. But it doesn’t have to be that way!
I used one popular technique for a very long time, and didn’t always have success. But I’ve finally learned how to make sure it doesn’t split! And it just so happens that this way is also the easiest way.
You can use either a blender or a food processor for this recipe. If you’re ready to get to blending, jump to the recipe. Or read on to learn how to make sure your toum never splits again.
And the key to toum that doesn’t split is…
[drum roll…]
Add all the water at once in the beginning! (Then add the oil very slowly.)
I learned this strategy from my friend Cosette’s toum recipe. Ever since this shift, I’ve been had a 100% success rate with my emulsion successfully taking.
I think this one little change makes a big difference for two reasons:
- It allows you to get a really smooth purée of garlic before you begin slowly introducing the oil. The more smoothly the garlic is puréed, the easier the emulsion will come together.
- My old technique involved alternating oil and water, but it’s so easy to accidentally add too much of one or the other as you go (and once you do, the whole thing is ruined). By adding all of the water right away and then slowly drizzling in the oil, there’s just less room for error. You don’t have to judge the viscosity of the toum to decide whether it’s time to add more water or oil. You just add the oil in a slow stream, and boom—you’ve got toum!
But the old advice about adding the oil very, very slowly still stands. You absolutely must do so to make sure your emulsion doesn’t break. That’s the main takeaway, but there are a few other things you can do to ensure success:
How to make sure your toum doesn’t break:
You could just carefully follow the recipe below, which accounts for all of the following advice. But if you’re curious why the recipe specifies “cold water” or whether you can double it, read on:
- Add the water all at once with the finely chopped garlic toward the beginning.
- Drizzle in the oil in a slow and steady stream. Whatever you do, do not add it all at once and do not rush it.
- Don’t let the food processor or blender run gratuitously (especially if you have a high-power blender, which can overheat quickly). If you’re taking a break from streaming in oil, stop the machine. But make sure you do let it run for 1 or 2 seconds after you stop drizzling in the oil to make sure it fully incorporates.
- Don’t make toum in large batches. Even if your blender or food processor is big enough to hold a lot, it may not be powerful enough. This recipe is the maximum amount you can safely make at a time. This shouldn’t be a problem, because it’s incredibly strong, and easy to whip up whenever. If you’re cooking for a huge party and need to make extra, make it in a couple batches. You might sometimes get away with doubling this recipe. But it will most likely break some of the time (and then you’ll lose twice as much—yikes!). And anything more than doubling it will break just about every single time. Trust me when I say I’ve learned from experience while working in a restaurant.
- Use cold water and cold lemon juice.
- Your blender or food processor should be very clean to start.
- Use fresh garlic, not garlic that has started sprouting (I’m not sure if there’s good evidence this helps with the emulsion, but some cooks swear by it. Either way, it’s essential for the right flavor).
Ways to use toum
From there, the possibilities are endless. I’m going to post one of my favorite ways to use toum in just a couple days, but until then, feel free to experiment with using it as a marinade, in a little bowl with your favorite meze, as a dip for a ho-hum store-bought rotisserie chicken, and basically anywhere you want to add a lot of garlicky flavor, some richness, and a little acidity. I’ve also got three recipes featuring toum in my second cookbook, Piecemeal (elotes preparados, toum thyme chicken, and a BLT made with toum and pancetta).
Still going strong:
Edit, Oct 2022: It’s been 3.5 years since I posted this recipe, I’ve made toum dozens more times, and I’m still at a 100% success rate with this recipe. Although, after typing up this little edit, I’m destined to jinx it. But just to say: this recipe is the most reliable method I’ve found yet.
Printeasiest toum
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: about 2 cups*
Ingredients
- 90g very fresh peeled garlic cloves (heaping 1/2 cup, from a 105g head)
- 1.5g salt (1/4 teaspoon)
- 55g cold water (1/4 cup)
- 315g neutral oil (1 1/2 cups)**
- 30g cold lemon juice (2 tablespoons)
- special equipment: a high-powered blender or food processor***
Instructions
- Combine the garlic and salt in a very clean blender (see note for food processor ***). Blend at a low speed until the garlic is coarsely puréed. Add the water and blend at medium speed until it liquefies. Turn the blender off when you’re not using it, to prevent it from overheating.
- With the blender running at a medium-low speed, remove the cap from the lid (but keep the lid on so it doesn’t splatter/for safety), and start to slowly drizzle in the oil through the small opening. Try to aim the stream of the oil for the center of the blades. Do not pour the oil too quickly or the emulsion will break.
- Once all of the oil has been added, the toum should be thick and white, kind of like an aioli or thin mayo. Slowly pour in the lemon juice while the blender is running. The toum will thicken a bit more, and then it’s ready to use. You can store in in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks (adding more lemon juice will allow you to store it longer, for more like 1 month).
Notes
* Do not double this recipe. Toum is an eggless emulsion, so it’s very temperamental, and will break very easily. It must be made in small batches. Let the blender cool down between batches, because excessive heat can also cause the emulsion to break. This shouldn’t be a problem, because you probably won’t need more than 2 cups at a time. It’s strong stuff!
** Do not use extra virgin olive oil for this (although it works alright with super refined olive oil. I like to use canola, but any other neutral oil will work).
*** If you don’t have a high-powered blender, you can totally make toum in a food processor instead. The danger of making it with a high speed blender is letting it run too long, which makes the toum overheat and break. On the other hand, the danger of making it with a food processor is not puréeing the garlic enough at the beginning, so make sure you mince it finely with the salt, and then slowly add the water. In either case, it’s important to add the oil slowly, but you’ll want to add it a little extra slowly when using a food processor.
I used an immersion blender and toum broke after 1 day. The recipe called for adding all of the oil at once and slowly slowly lifting the blender to emulsify. It was beautiful at the time of making it, but the next day it was liquid. I did not use water, just garlic, salt, lemon juice and avocado oil. Will try using your recipe w/ the water and see what happens. Thank you for letting me know that breaking is more common than not.
Oh I know *exactly* the technique you’re talking about. It can work very well, but I think that technique is extremely hit or miss. If you accidentally *stir* it while blending instead of letting the oil slowly incorporate, it doesn’t make a stable emulsion. That one can be so frustrating! I hope you have better luck with this method. I actually just made some a couple weeks ago, and my recipe still hasn’t failed me yet! (Make sure you read through the list of ways to make sure your toum doesn’t break). Let me know how it goes!
This is a miracle recipe! I made toum for the first time today, I had three bulbs of garlic and wasted 2 of them on 2 separate recipes. I almost quit (thats a lot of garlic to peel..)
but I found your recipe and reluctantly, gave it one last shot. Wooohooo!! It worked! Worked beautifully! I am stunned and overjoyed – thank you for taking the time to explain every step so clearly.
You absolutely made my day! 😀
(Oh and if you ever wanna experiment with more toum techniques, Maureen Abood and Cosette Posko each has a slightly different technique from this one, but each is also super reliable and excellent! Just had to shout out a few other extremely reliable toum recipe writers haha)
I almost cried, your recipe was wonderful! Last time I tried to make this in a food processor I made a garlic oil, lemon juice, salt soup, it did not emulsify. I followed your recipe precisely, and used my high powered Blendtec blender, and it produced a beautiful toum. Thank you for your insight and recipe!
Oh my gosh I’ve only ever cried tears of *frustration* from making toum, so your message truly made my day! I used to work in a restaurant and almost broke into tears one day when I just couldn’t get my emulsion to take— I’m glad something positive came out of all that trial and error!! <3
Made toum for the first time last night and followed this recipe and it turned out perfectly! I’ve already sent the recipe to at least five different people! Will it still work the same if I cut the recipe in half?
I’m so glad it worked for you! Cutting it in half is a little tricky, but way less risky than doubling it. As long as your blender or food processor isn’t absolutely gigantic, it should go just fine. At a certain point, too small an amount will have trouble making enough contact w/ the blades. But I *think* halved should work!
Packed with flavor and easy to make. We love to put this on chicken and potatoes
The absolute best with chicken!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I’ve been using it for over a year and it is the most consistent (texture and taste) toum I’ve ever made. I just used it today and I thought "Wow. This recipe has never let me down. I have to say thank you!" I cook for one and this small batch recipe is perfect. Most toum recipes are large batches that don’t scale down well which has resulted in a lot of frustrated tears. I love that your measurements are so exact with the grams. But, I also love that I’ve used less (about 70g) and more (about 100g) of garlic and it’s never fallen on me. Making toum used to be (honestly still is) a nerve-racking process for me but the relief I get after using this recipe borders on blasphemous. I will admit though, after making toum for years two of the biggest lessons I’ve learned are: 1. water is not evil. I think this must be an old-school thing but adding water to the process is not bad! and 2. the oil you use makes a big, big, big difference. In the past I’ve tried to be healthier with the toum and have used safflower and sunflower oil but canola or vegetable is the best if you want it to be fluffy and stay fluffy.
Sorry for the long post, but again, THANK YOU! This is the best small batch toum recipe ever!!!
Oh my gosh your message absolutely made my day! Having a toum-not-breaking streak that long is a miracle, and I’m so glad my recipe could be a small part of that! <3
Completely agree with your lessons learned, especially the water part. I think I used to overdo it on the lemon juice before, but truly—water is a magical ingredient. And yesss, canola/vegetable is so ideal here.
Hope you keep enjoying lots of garlicky goodness!
Hi Kathryn! Thanks a lot for the recipe. I have failed countless times making toum. Now I have one more clue about it.
I used a blender and tried it 2 times just now and it has thickened more than my past trials, yet it is still remaining in the liquidy side nowhere close to thick, thick toum i see in restaurants.
There is no confusion in other steps but can you please describe more in details how slowly I have to pour in oil? I used blended oil, half canola half sunflower seed.
I am about to cry …
Ahhhh, you’re really bringing me back to my days of working in a Lebanese restaurant. One day, I tried to make toum literally 3 times in a row and it just would not take. I think I might’ve literally cried (once I got home, of course hahaha).
So first, don’t sweat it! You’ll get there soon! My toum hasn’t broken once in years, and sometimes it just takes a lot of practice.
Ok, so now for the troubleshooting: I’m sure you’re doing everything from the list, so let me see if there’s any more info I can give you to figure this out. Re. how slowly to add the oil, really try to go as slowly as you possibly can. The stream of oil should be about the diameter of a wooden kebab skewer (maybe a little narrower), if that makes sense. But don’t go so slowly that you’re just doing a drop at a time—if you go too slowly, the blender will be running gratuitously, and that can make it overheat (especially w/ a vitamix or other high-power blender).
Also, try slowly drizzling in just a touch more water after you’ve added about half the oil and have a good emulsion going. I don’t like my toum to be super-super thick (this recipe results in toum more like the consistency of mayo, but it sounds like you’re after the kind that you can do the dairy queen upside down blizzard test too haha—that kind is wonderful too), and adding water to the ratio in this recipe should (counterintuitively) actually thicken it. I haven’t tested it that way, so I can’t say for absolute certain (apologies if I’m wrong), but I think just 1 or 2 teaspoons should probably do the trick.
Anyway, I hope this helps! Don’t worry, you’ll get the toum you’re after! I just know it! Keep me posted on how it goes, and let me know if you need more moral support. We should probably start a support group haha.
would this work with an immersion blender?
Great question! I haven’t actually tested this myself because I don’t own one (so can’t put it in the actual recipe), but I got a ton of messages from people, (including one restaurant owner/head chef) saying that they love using an immersion blender for this. I think it might just take a bit longer in the beginning to get the garlic to fully purée, and you’ll have to find the right shaped container (the kind of container that stick blenders come w/ would work perfectly here).
I used my immersion blender — but first I pureed the peeled garlic with a very fine Microplane grater, so it was smooth to start. Hope that helps!
Ooh that’s such a clever idea if you don’t have a food processor or blender! (Or if you just don’t feel like dirtying one!)
This sounds killer and I can’t wait to try it! Would it ruin it to add things afterward, like some finely minced preserved lemon?
Ooh that’s a great question, and that sounds delicious! I’ve never tried mixing anything in myself, but it’s worth experimenting! If you’re nervous the emulsion might break, you can always take half the toum out of the blender/food processor first, and then try adding a few odds and ends to the other half. If it breaks, at least you’ll still have half a batch of perfectly good toum 😉
So well explained Kathryn! Loved the post!
Aw thanks so much! 😀