I’m looking for carnivore-friendly recipes, so no plant oils or spices. This means it basically has to just be lard and eggs. I understand that most or all recipes use lemon juice or vinegar for acid, and I can live with that.
Mostly what I’m looking for is tips to get the best results—my results have been mixed. I.e. proportions and technique. Heat the lard or not? Hand blender OK? Etc.
I’ve not tried with lard, but with avocado oil, the key is using a stick mixer and a narrow vessel, and adding the oil slowly.
The other variable if you’re using a fat that’s solid at room temp is that you’d definitely want to make sure your egg is not cold when you mix.
I’d warm the lard enough that it flows, and use vinegar for the acid, and again let the egg(s) come to room temp (or even do a sous vide pasteurization) before adding them, so the fat doesn’t solidify.
Hope that helps.
Now that I think about it, because lard is solid (ish) at room temperature, baconnaise is really more a Hollandaise than a mayonnaise.
In fact, a “bacon” / butter blend might be fantastic.
I use yolks only, warm the bacon fat only to the point it will run, and use ACV. I mix with an immersion blender that just fits into a canning jar so it’s really close to the sides and then use the jar for storage.
I’m going to try some butter too from the comments above 
This is the site I used for technique, it emphasizes the importance of sizing your jar. I followed a paleo mayo recipe with yolks only
My hard cover “The Food Lab” arrived last week, so excited to crack it open! I didn’t realize he had such a beautiful book until I read it in 2KetoDudes FB discussions.
I read an article on making mayo with different animal oils, and the final verdict was a 50-50 ratio with saturated fat to unsaturated fat for best results. If you go higher on the saturated fat, your mayo will lose the emulsification and break. I used avocado oil in my baconaise. Not sure if a butter and bacon only would hold up.
I’ve had success with a bacon grease/avocado oil mix. I use a whole egg, and ACV with this (also a bit of my homemade fermented mustard. It seems to help it emulsify). I have found that it works better if the gg is at room temp, and if the bacon grease is almost at room temp (just before it starts to harden back up).
Julie
The fact that Hollandaise works at all is encouraging, with butter being almost completely saturated, but lard is about 50-50 saturated to unsaturated — it’s about 45% saturated 45% monounsaturated and the rest polyunsaturated. So I’m wondering what they meant.
Interesting, less oil needed for lard then. Although Hollandaise needs to be re-emulsified if reheated ( unless sous vide is used ).
Yeah. That’s what I would expect, anyway. Good point about the re-emulsification. Hollandaise isn’t typically bottled for later!
I love my baconaise, but I made a lard mayo and did not like it. It was also my piggier lard, haven’t tried with my better batch yet. It just tastes like straight lard, and it was not enjoyable. Probably also used too much vinegar. That doesn’t help. But neither is spreadable, unless I want to store it on the counter, yet I don’t eat enough mayo to go through it before it goes bad. I’ve considered trying a bacon grease/ghee mix and storing that room temp.
Weird. Isn’t bacon grease lard? What exactly did you use that you didn’t like?
I have some jars of lard from Fatworks, but I rarely get to them because my own yield from cooking is hard to keep up with. I find both fairly tasteless.
I have grease from cooking bacon, and I have lard from home rendering pig fat. The former has a fried bacon flavor, the latter is either somewhat plain or piggy, depending on how well you render it. I didn’t know what I was doing with the first batch and it came out piggy, the second batch came out plain. Plain lard has a nice clear, white color. My bacon grease is brownish.
I see. Interesting. I always do my bacon in the oven these days, and it comes out clear, turning white as it cools, and very mild tasting. Here’s a photo of some I have in the fridge.
I have also gotten some in the past from roasting ribs, and I don’t remember it being distinguishable in my case.
I cook my bacon in butter, so all of my bacon fat drippings are really a mixture of butter and bacon fat. And yes, bacon butter is delicious!
As far as using the rendered fat - it never ends up the same texture of mayo without a lighter oil. However! it makes for a great spread. Outside of what other spices I may add, the best part is really the vinegar and lime/lemon juice.
Also, the spread melts and separates if put on something hot or if it gets too warm. And then it’s an oily mess. I’ve also accidently made a really thick dressing because the mayo never set, and I kept adding eggs and blending…
LOL Well, the dressing, which I used for dipping and salads at the time was well enjoyed just the same.
