Mayonnaise flavoured ice-cream? Yes, really

It's good in sandwiches, and some people even prefer to dip their chips into it rather than ketchup. It is said to be an effective hair conditioner, and apparently it works wonders on stainless steel.

The Natural Hair Queen site has this to say about using mayo as a hair product:  "Can mayonnaise help damaged hair? Absolutely. Will your hair smell like mayo? Yes, but just for a little while, and it's probably worth it."

Mayonnaise may just be the most versatile substance in your fridge, but a Scottish firm has been rising eyebrows – and churning stomachs – with its Hellmann’s ice-cream, a viral hit that has divided opinion.

It went on sale at Ice, an artisan ice-cream shop in Falkirk, Scotland, earlier this month and is the latest in a variety of whacky flavours the shop has invented, including Strongbow dark fruit cider, and Guinness.

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News of the unusual flavour has spread far and wide, with even the Washington Post and the Ellen show in the US weighing in on the debate.

Ice owner Kyle Gentleman says the unusual flavour has been selling well. "Demand has exceeded expectations thanks to the publicity and inquisitive nature of us Scots. Every person through the shop doors wants to talk about and try the mayo."

It’s not the first time the sauce, an emulsion of egg yolk, oil and acid – either lemon juice or vinegar – has turned up where you’d least expect it.

The internet is full of recipes for chocolate mayonnaise cake, including this one, on the Hellman's website, where you'll also find a recipe for golden citrus cake, featuring, yes, you guessed it.

According to US gourmet magazine Bon Appétit, "mayonnaise is a chocolate cake's best friend". Strong words, but when you think about it, eggs and oil are the main ingredients in the jar, and they're not going to do harm to most cakes. Even the salt that it contains has a place, now that we are adding it to chocolate and caramel confectionery.

Hellmann’s has been sold commercially since 1912, when New York deli owner Richard Hellmann brought it to market. Using it for baking appears to have originated in the 1930s, when it was most likely a home economics hack. Most recipe writers agree that adding mayonnaise to batter makes for a more moist cake.

It also pops up in fish recipes, most often smeared over fillets and baked in the oven. My childhood featured a family favourite affectionately known as “burnt salmon”. This distinctly non-PC but nonetheless delicious concoction involved mixing minced garlic, tomato puree and grated Parmesan into mayonnaise, smearing it over leftover poached salmon, and browning the lurid pink concotion under a hot grill until it took on a mahogany glow worthy of its name.

Michelle Wickham, chef at Fia cafe in Rathgar road, Dublin 6, suggests smearing mayonnaise over salmon fillets and sprinkling them with the dry Japanese seasoning furikake, before baking in the oven.

You can buy the seasoning in Asian stores, but Wickham suggests making the furikake with "toasted sesame seeds, dried seaweed – I use dilisk – mixed together with Maldon salt and a little sugar. You can use bonito flakes as well".

Her instructions are to marinade the salmon in soy sauce, coat with mayonnaise and sprinkle furikake on top of the fish, then bake it. “Furikake is good on everything,” she says.

So, too, is mayonnaise. Except, perhaps, ice-cream.