I’ve been making mayonnaise for a while now. I’ve used it for buttermilk ranch dressing, macroni salad, horseradish sauce, onion ring sauce, thousand island dressing and deviled eggs. A couple of times I said that it didn’t come out as thick as I would have wanted, but that was okay since it was an ingredient in a sauce.
Well, after enough trial and error I think I can finally explain how to do it consistently.
Ingredients
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1½ cups olive pomace oil
1-2 teaspoons mustard powder (optional)
½ teaspoon salt
Directions
The key to making mayonnaise is to get a good emulsion going. That means droplets of the yolks are suspended in the oil. Do it wrong and you get greasy, oily yolk. Do it right and you get thick, rich mayonnaise.
First step is to separate the yolks.
Put them in the narrowest vessel your immersion blender fits in. I’m lucky that mine came with a cup made to fit it. Add two tablespoons of vinegar.
Here’s where the trial and error starts to pay off. When I first went looking for directions I found a video where a guy added the oil right after the vinegar. The idea was to add the oil gently so the vinegar and yolks stay together. They have to form the emulsion before the oil starts getting incorporated.
Don’t try that. It potentially saves you maybe 30 seconds, and makes it really easy to screw up. Just hit the vinegar and yolks with the blender for 15-20 seconds and you’ll have a good emulsion going.
Then add about a quarter-cup of the oil and blend again.
If you’ve got a good emulsion it should look sort of like instant pudding at this point. Thicker than cream, but not completely mayo-thick yet.
You’ll notice my mayo has a slightly odd color. That’s not bad color in the photo, it’s because I’m using the olive oil which is pretty green. Add the mustard and salt and another quarter-cup of the oil.
Each time you add oil and blend again it should get thicker. If it suddenly gets thinner, you just “broke” the emulsion. Don’t worry, just pour out what you’ve got so far into a separate cup, and start over with another yolk and tablespoon of vinegar. Once you get the emulsion going again, start adding the first batch back in a little at a time.
Keep adding the oil a quarter cup at a time. Toward the end, you can’t just leave the blender in and expect everything to mix. You’ll need to keep going top to bottom and clearing the edges of the cup. Like this:
And that’s it.
Stay tuned for more summer junk food. This batch of mayo, along with the buttermilk, went into some ranch dressing. Not for salad. For dipping yummy fried stuff. (Onions, but don’t tell anyone. It’s a surprise.)
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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11 Comments
Wow. That is some seriously yellow mayonnaise. Like, Big Bird yellow.
Ok, I only have 2 questions. One, what do you do with all of your egg whites when you make things like this? Two, what is the difference between olive pomace oil and regular olive oil? Can you use regular olive oil? Ok, that turned out to be 3 questions but the last two kinda go together.
Audrey, I keep the whites in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, and try to remember to add them to an omelet or some scrambled eggs on the weekend. Or make a pie and use the whites for meringue.
The olive oil answer was getting long, so I put it on the forum.
How long will the homemade mayo keep?
Rosemary, I’ve seen lots of recipes that say it won’t keep longer than a week. But I cleaned out the jar from the last mayo I bought at the store and I’ve been using that to keep it in the fridge. I’ve kept it as long as the store brand without any problems.
How do you avoid food poisoning when you mix raw eggs into a recipe?
Raw eggs aren’t poison. “Everyone knows” you can’t leave potato salad out on a warm day, because the eggs will go bad. Well “everyone” is wrong. It’s the potatoes that spoil, not the mayo.
Make sure everything is clean before you make the mayo, including the eggshells, and this mayo will keep for weeks in the fridge.
Drew, I just discovered your website and LOVE your recipes and tutorials! Do you know if this mayo will turn out without using the salt? (I have Meniere’s Disease and have to severely limit my sodium.)
Mary, the consistency is just fine, but the flavor is a little flat without the salt. I’d definitely include the mustard powder if I couldn’t use salt.
Is the vinegar absolutely necessary? I followed your instructions exactly (consistency turned out great), but it has a very distinct vinegar smell and taste. Can I use less, or none at all? Thanks.
Some people prefer lemon juice instead of vinegar. You need something acidic to get a good emulsion going.
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