Tasty RV Eats – Easy Home-Made Mayonnaise
Most folks either love or hate mayonnaise and those that love it worry about how bad it is for them. Honestly I don’t blame them. The stuff you buy in the supermarket is really pretty awful made with suspect veggie oils and stabilizers that just don’t make for good food, or rather anything that’s good for you at all.
What most people don’t know is that REAL mayonnaise is made from olive oil, the very same heart-healthy oil that’s touted in Mediterranean diets. The other thing that most people don’t know is that it takes literally MINUTES to make. The key is to use a good food processor (you need SPEED to get the emulsion right) and to work the oil into the egg/vinegar mix slooooowly. If you do this you’ll get picture-perfect mayonnaise every single time, plus you’ll actually get a whole-food product that’s healthy for you (in moderation, of course) AND that tastes fabulous to boot.
We ditched store-brought mayonnaise many years ago and have been making our own ever since. It’s not something we eat everyday, but when we’re in the mood for a really tasty chicken salad, an awesome potato salad, or some home-made aioli we’ll whip up a batch in the food processor. Our #1 recipe of choice (the one I’m using here) is from the most excellent Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook
Easy Home-Made Mayonnaise
Total prep time ~5 mins
Ingredients (makes ~2 cups)
1.5 cups olive oil*
1 whole egg**
3 tsps lemon juice
2 tsps white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
* It’s worth using a good-quality olive oil here since it’s the main ingredient (and main taste) of the recipe. If you can buy fresh-pressed oil from a local guy that’s the best thing ever, but otherwise we are huge fans of Partanna Extra Virgin Olive Oil
** If you buy quality eggs you should not need to worry about using them raw, but for those of you who aren’t comfortable with this you can buy pasteurized eggs in the supermarket.
Equipment Needed
The key to a good mayonnaise emulsion is speed and the best thing for this is a food processor. You can certainly make mayonnaise the “old-fashioned” way with a hand whisk (and we’ve done that), but you’ll get more consistent results with the speed of a food processor. Our processor of choice is the this very basic, very powerful Cuisinart DLC-2009CHB 9-cup. It’s an absolute work-horse that we’ve used it for years, and it’s big enough to handle just about anything we need. We like it so much it’s one of our top 5 favorite kitchen items for RV cooking.
Instructions
1/ Add egg, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard and salt (= everything except the olive oil) to your food processor. Pulse quickly to combine.
2/ Get your olive oil ready and start the food processor on high. While the processor is running pour in the olive oil sloooowly, taking around 1-2 minutes or so to get all the oil into the processor. The mixture will initially get more liquid/runny and will then start to emulsify and thicken. Once the oil is completely poured in you can keep mixing for another 30 seconds or so to get the thickness right. The final mix should be creamy and thick enough that it forms stable peaks and ridges. If the mix isn’t nicely thick, give it an additional 30 seconds.
3/ Scoop out the mayonnaise and use or refrigerate immediately. Home-made mayonnaise should be used within 2-3 days of making due to the raw egg ingredient.
Note/ Home-made mayonnaise will be yellow in color from the yolk of the egg that you put in. This is completely normal and the way real mayonnaise should look!
THANK YOU!!!!!! so much for this recipe. I am the only person that uses mayo, and not too often so am always hesitant to stock it on board just for me. And, the store bought stuff just isn’t that tasty. Since I recently purchased that very same processor (and love it for salsa and guacamole) I feel I MUST try this recipe soon. Thanks again for sharing it!
Excellent! We really do LOVE this recipe and I hope you do too!
Nina
Will you please share your favorite aioli recipe? Thanks
It’s coming, but it might take a little while before I can share it. We made the aioli as part of the recipe article I was commissioned to write last week, so I can’t officially share it on the blog until the article is published. But I WILL share it soon. The feature picture in this post is actually a teaser for the aioli.
Nina
Thanks for sharing. I always think I’m too lazy to make homemade mayo but your recipe sounds easy and too good to pass up!
If your store bought egg carton has an expiration date on it your mayo will be good until then as long as you keep it refrigerated.
I’ve read you can do this with a handheld blender as well by putting the oil in the container last, pushing your blender all the way to the bottom, and lifting it very slowly as you blend. I have not tried that yet but it might make for easier cleanup–especially if you make it in a Mason jar so you can just store it right in that.
Indeed you can! Before we got the food processor we made it with a hand blender exactly the way you described. Thanks for pointing that out. I forgot to mention it in the post.
Nina
We do that. Just don’t lick the blender! I did not see this reply till I replied way down at the bottom. One cleanup trick I have is once the mayo is done, I take the measuring cup and fill it with very hot water and a squirt of dish soap and whirl. I try to get as much off the blades first, and find a plastic knife works best. I try to keep oil out of our tank so I tend to make my mayo at home, since we are not full timers. I
I definitely agree on the hot water trick. I find it very hard to clean-up mayo left-overs with cold water, but a little hot water works beautifully. When we’re boondocking we’ll heat a cup or so of hot water on the stovetop and use that.
Nina
Wow – I thought I was the only living being who still made homemade mayo – my Gr Mom showed me how years ( and years ) ago. It’s the best and once you taste it you’ll never go back! I leave out the salt though – the Dijon has enough for my taste. Love your posts!! 78 days until departure date!!
Great to know we’re not the only ones!! I loooooooove home-made mayo. It’s just so darn tasty especially if you make it with a good olive oil.
Nina
I don’t have a blender…can I use a very good emulsion blender? I will have to try this on Tom…he is a Hellman’s guy though….
YES you can. We’ve made it with a hand blender in the past. Just make sure you pour the oil in very sloooowly and move the blender around well. See above comment.
Nina
As a french family, who has loved to follow you….we are now 6 months a year RVers in the US… allow me the following comments:
1)If you add the oil slowly, you can even do it with a wisk, the trick is to incorporate as much air as you can in the mixture, to melt the salt in the lemon juice and to add it once your mayonnaise is done.
2) Olive oil based mayonnaise is wonderful with white fish and steamed vegetables, but do not forget to add crushed garlic, in France we call it Aioli a tradition in the south of France on Friday !
3) Standard oil is excellent for deviled eggs, steamed cold salmon, any seafood, the freshness is the most important for us, as it is for the Chocolate Mousse !
All excellent tips, merci! And yes, I loooove making aioli. In fact that’s going to be one of the future recipes on the blog (the top pic is a teaser for it). By the way thank you so much for following the blog! I just love that I have some international folks on here.
Nina
I’ve been wanting to make this for a while and your recipe looks simpler than mine. We noticed the Amora mustard 🙂
Brenda
Yup, thanks to you we are now addicted to that mustard LOL.
Nina
We are so doing this. Thanks.
I am re logging this so that I have it on hand. Thanks
I agree — mayonnaise made with olive oil is the only kind worth eating! Even the organic commercially made mayos are made with bad oils. We’ve not been eating mayo since we’ve been traveling full time because it seemed like too much trouble to make (and we don’t travel with a food processor). But I do have an immersion blender, and making it in a Mason jar is a fantastic idea!
Great! Hope the recipe works out for you. It’s really super easy.
Nina
Good mayo is one of my favorites and this simple recipe looks super tasty. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to more yummies from the magazine article 🙂
Hi Nina!
We just started following you and I was tickled to see you making homemade mayo. I used a similar method but replaced the vinegar/salt preservative with whey/kefir because it (supposedly) lasts longer. My partner doesn’t like mayo as much — great sigh — and I’m short on time so the less often I make a big batch, the better. The lacto/fermented method didn’t taste any different (to me) and kept for over a month but getting the whey is itself a process! Hopefully when we join the RV life, I can make more time for your recipe!
Jp
Interesting tip on the whey. I had no idea it acted as a natural preservative. I sometimes have whey in the house when I’m fermenting (kefir). Maybe I’ll give this a try next time.
Nina
We love making our own mayo and since I travel with a Blendtec blender it can whip up most anything. I am always on the hunt for good olive oil so thanks for the tip. 🙂
The Partanna is super tasty. Since we “discovered” it, it’s become our #1 olive oil unless we can pick up something local.
Nina
You mean you aren’t a fan of BACONNAISE® ?
Haha nope…I’m very happy to put bacon in our own mayonnaise, but won’t buy that.
Nina
Hi Nina,
I’ve been making my own mayo for years. I use a stick blender. It takes under a minute. Seriously!
It makes a bit over a cup and I make it in a pint jar – regular canning jar wide mouth with plastic lid.
My recipe takes a single egg and a tsp of vinegar a tbsp of lemon juice, a scant 1/2 tsp of Colmans mustard plus salt all put at once in no particular order in the jar.
Then I pour a cup of olive oil over the first set of ingredients, insert the stick blender, turn it on and it immediately makes mayo starting at the bottom of the jar. I just pull the blender end upwards until all the oil has been emulsified.
Since I’ve done this so many times it is automatic. If I need a double batch I just make a second one in a second jar.
At home I have had several failures with my cuisinart processor, but never with the stick blender. I bought a second one for our motor home.
— liane
I’m glad so many people wrote in about the hand blender method since it gives RV folks another easy option. Great to hear you make home-made mayo too!
Nina
Hi, As a newbie I thank you for your blog….it has helped us a lot. I just wanted to give you a f.y.i. on using raw eggs in any recipe without cooking. We all take risks and using raw eggs is a big one but for most people works out. Anyone with young children, immunocompromised members or the elderly should be careful about the consumption of raw eggs due to possible salmonella ( a bacteria) contamination and lack of ability to keep it at bay. Also there is no way to tell good eggs from bad on appearance, cost or other factors.
Susan Callahan, retired, Dept. of Food Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Certainly appreciate the warning, since there is always risk with eating any raw animal food, but I stand by my recommendation of buying better eggs.
Salmonella is a much more significant problem in crowded egg-laying environments where the hens are health compromised. There is evidence that that better eggs, especially cage-free and even more preferably, pasture-raised (outdoor free-range) hens produce eggs with a significantly lower risk of salmonella.
As a reference this study, the largest study of its kind (analyzing more than 30,000 samples taken from more than 5,000 operations across two dozen countries in Europe) showed that cage-free barns had about 43% lower odds of harboring the egg-related strain of Salmonella. In organic egg production salmonella contamination was 95% lower and in free- range production the odds were 98% lower:
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/97r.htm
Here’s a detailed write up of the same with more of the study results (page 2 and 3), plus links to 15 additional studies showing similar results:
http://www.hsi.org/assets/pdfs/hsi-fa-white-papers/food_safety_risks_of_cage_egg.pdf
Again, the warning is appreciated and conforms to FDA guidelines, but I do believe you are at significantly lower risk when you buy better eggs.
For those who are still worried, as I mentioned in the post, you can certainly buy pasteurized eggs which have been treated and thus will be free of salmonella.
Nina
I was raised on Hellman’s and love it still but I know that the homemade mayo is miles above the store bought. When I first was reading this post and saw the big Cuisinart like I have in storage at home I thought to myself I should try this with my immersion stick blender. It was fun to see then so many comments with this method. Now all I need to do is find some eggs and a jar and we’re off! thanks for this post!
Yeah I love that several folks chimed in with the immersion stick option. Great to know it works so well. RV blog reader tested and approved!
Nina
I’ve been looking for a reason/ excuse to blog in. Hi, preemie here…not even a newbie yet…just a week endeder so far…but we have plans.
I make my own mayo. My recipe is close to one posted above for a 1cup recipe…add cracked pepper, and yum (moderation, tho!)…. we don’t use much mayo, so 1cup is enough for us.
Thanks for ALL the wonderful items you post…I assume you know how educational and inspiring you are.
🙂 Linda
It’s good to know you can make the recipe with slightly less oil in case you need less mayo. We’ve always followed the exact proportions from Cooks Illustrated (as listed in the post) and the emulsion has always turned our perfectly, but sometimes 2 cups of mayo is a bit much. Next time I might experiment with cutting it down a bit.
Nina
For those of you on the west coast. Sciabica olive oil. A little expensive to ship. But the taste difference between the different varieties and harvest times is amazing. AND… If you have never tasted unfiltered oil from the first cold press – do yourself a favor!
I also add whey (1 tablespoon) sometimes substituting some of it for the lemon juice/vinegar, sometimes not. I just experiment with a recipe till I get the end result that I want. If you add the whey you need to let the mayonnaise sit at room temperature for about 7 hours before you refrigerate it. (Very important) Keep it well covered (cheese cloth) during this time. It will thicken up a bit more when you do this and according to Sally Fallon author of Nourishing Traditions cookbook it will keep for several months refrigerated, add enzymes and increase nutrients if you follow this process. We don’t eat a lot of mayo so I always follow her process and my mayo keeps for several months and still tastes delish. I will be trying this
recipe next using whey. By the way I have the same food processor and also love it.
Very good tip! I’m a big Sally Fallon fan (and have that exact same cookbook), so don’t know why I didn’t know this trick. Cheers.
Nina
Back in my natural foods restraunt days I worked out a low-cal mayo which I also used as a base for various dips. The recipe is quite different from yours & the equipment used was a restraunt/bar grade 2-speed blender on high speed. The ingredients are 1/2 lemon (remove seeds), splash of apple juice, dab of mustard, one whole egg, oil and water. No salt or vinegar. Place egg, aj, lemon and mustard in blender. Turn on blender. Add oil slowly – too fast & it doesn’t emulsify. Last add water – depending on how low-cal/bland you want it to be water can be any amount up to equal the amount of oil. Higher amounts of water require delicate touch or everything deemulsifies. Since I worked it out from scratch and the fresh lemon and egg are never consistently the same, I based amounts on experience rather than specific measures (sorry ’bout that). Change the flavor by adding various spices. Make dip for raw veggie snacks by adding Parmesan with or without spices. Experiment. Have fun. Don’t be locked into a cookbook.
edward
Love homemade mayo….not even the same thing as store bought.
Welcome to Portland, my hometown. So enjoyed meeting you at Clark Dry Lakebed. Hope to meet Paul sometime. I am in Portland until June 1 when I begin my first camp host gig at Oregon State Parks. Would love to see you two. Have fun!
I’m definitely in the category of a mayo hater, lol! While I’ve never posted a comment before, I’ve been following you guys for a while. I wanted to let you know that I shared some linkie love over on my blog rvlostyet.com. Your blog is one that inspired me :-).
Thank you for posting this! I also ditched mayonnaise years ago and substituted hummus in its place. Egg salad and deviled eggs with hummus and mustard is delicious, but I am looking forward to trying your recipe.
I tried this and mine turned out to be a runny mess? What went wrong??????
My best guess is that you poured in the olive oil too fast? It needs to be drizzled in slowly to the mixer (while the mixer is running). The slow drizzle is key to getting it to thicken.
Nina
Okay, Thank you Nina, Will give it another try.
One more tip. Don’t stop until ALL the oil is in. Stopping the process half way through to see how the mix is doing is another potential mistake. Once you start the drizzle, keep going (with the mixer spinning) until it’s all in. It doesn’t seem like it should thicken, but it always does right at the very end.
Nina
That is one of my problems. I have two different mixers. One is a “Magic Bullet” which I am unable to pour oil in as it is running the other is a stick thing.. Being a single male I thought I had the cool stuff. LOL right…. The bullet is the one that turned out all runny. I had better luck with the stick.. It worked with the stick but the taste was funny. I bought Organic extra virgin olive oil by La Tourangelle. The taste could come from the oil??
Just want to thank you Nina for giving me some hints as I’m trying to eat healthier. I live full time in my RV. Parked in Tucson AZ. right now and soon headed to Northern CA, near Tahoe. Waiting for the snow to melt more. Really enjoying your blogging.. Thanks for the experience that you two share with the “Beast” and paws.
As far as the Mayo, I got it to a mayo consistency but gonna try a new oil!!!
Thanks Again
Bill
Yes, the taste is likely the olive oil. As the main ingredient in the mayonnaise the quality and taste of the olive oil will make a ton of difference to the taste of final product. If you want a more neutral taste I recommend a lighter olive oil. That’s something you can experiment with.
And it also makes sense that your stick worked while the bullet did not. Since mayonnaise is an emulsion the slow drizzle mixing into a moving mixture is absolutely key to getting it to thicken. Mixing all the ingredients together at once won’t work. Another option is to use a hand whisk. This takes a bit of coordination since you’ve got to whisk briskly with one hand while you drizzle in the oil slowly with the other, but it’s do-able (with practice). We’ve made the recipe a couple of times that way when we didn’t want to dirty the mixer.
Glad you’re trying stuff out! Continued good travels to you.
Nina
I tried this and mine turned out to be a runny mess? what went wrong??? reposting because I forgot to click the notify button…
I use a cuisinart immersion blender and wide mouth mason jar. I really love homemade mayo (and whipped cream in my coffee.) I have found with the omega 3 eggs the mayo states fishy, I buy standard eggs almost all the time for this reason.