I made mayo, and it only took 5 tries


(Christopher Avery) #1

Call this a non-scale victory.

I’ve always enjoyed knowing my way around a kitchen. Before Keto I never thought of making my own mayonnaise (except that I’ve made Caesar dressing from scratch for 35 years and it starts with egg yolk, oil, lemon, vinegar. Duh.).
I can’t find any mayo in stores now that I want to buy after looking at the ingredients, so I decided to make my own.

Last night. AFTER chopping up 3 boiled eggs, I began.

  1. Experiment 1: With electric stick mixer, failed to achieve thickening. Hypothesis: stick whirly-thing did not reach bottom of bowl so made inconsistent contact with yolk and tiny amounts of oil.
  2. Exp 2: With Little Bullet blender, failed to achieve thickening, Hypothesis: Maybe it’s the f’ing oil.
  3. Exp 3: With Little Bullet blender, and now sesame oil instead of avocado oil, failed to achieve thickening, Hypothesis: blender motor is making the mixture too dang hot.
  4. Exp 4 (now I’'m feeling glad that I buy eggs 24 at a time): Back to the stick, with sesame oil. Same fricken results. Hypothesis: Maybe the electric tools are a distraction. Hypothesis: Get out the whisk!
  5. Exp 5: Nirvana! The yolk and a touch of sesame oil started thickening right away. As I added more oil, it stayed thick. Soon, I had nearly a cup of beautiful creamy yellowish concoction. I whisked in a little lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. The treasure is revealed! I now have the most beautiful, exquisite, I-dare-say perfect little bowl of delicious mayo I’ve ever seen in my life.

I’d post a picture, but it would look like a bowl of mayo.

I’m brought to tears. Yes, I used $20 worth of avocado oil, sesame oil, and eggs to get a cup of mayo.

I can now eat my dang egg salad. In my excitement I pour on way too much mayo. Soup. Scrumptious egg salad soup (with salt, pepper and a little smoked paprika of course).

#Win!

I can now imagine having a lunch or dinner guest and (knowingly) look in the fridge and say “Oh, hmmm. I’m out of mayo” Then, with just a touch of gourmet smugness I’ll continue, “Well no worries, I’'ll just whip some up. It’ll only take five minutes.”


One to avoid
(Jessica) #2

Congrats! A stick blender in a mason jar just wide enough for it to reach the bottom is my secret. I add all the ingredients at once, wait a minute for the oil to raise to the top and whir for 20 seconds. It pulls the oil down at the perfect rate.

Avocado based mayo in egg salad is one of the most filling things I’ve ever had.


(Linda Culbreth) #3

Reward yourself with your mayo as a dip with :bacon: strips!


(KCKO, KCFO) #4

Haven’t tried sesame oil, will have to add that to my avo and EVOO blend. I do my mayo in a food processor since the immersion blender can get the mix too hot if you blend it too long. I use it when I am in a hurry, with a jar opening that is just barely larger than the blender.

It is just so great to have mayo on demand and it is so much yummier than store bought.


(Christopher Avery) #5

Perfect. One Mason jar on the shopping list. Thank you Jessica.


(Mark Rhodes) #6

Buy a dozen. besides actual canning they are good for bacon grease, drippings and throwing herbs, oil and vinegars for home made dressing, plus on the mayo side you can make garlic mayo, regular, dill all with different oils. i do.


(Dawn Comber) #7

I tried avocado oil mayonnaise for the first time last week. Failed on the first attempt. Asked my foodie daughter what to do or whether I could fix it. She was emphatic: “Do Not Throw Out Your First Attempt.” So I didn’t.

Instead I separated 2 more yolks, then gently whisked some dijon, white wine vinegar in. I slowly added my failed mayo (it’s emulsified, she said) while running the stick blender. I came out with really thick (so many egg yolks) mayo - delicious too. A small, non-scale victory but I was completely excited.

Maybe this would work for others too, instead of losing that valuable, pricey oil!


(Crow T. Robot) #8

This is the best way to make mayo, which unfortunately I only found out from the comments under the Whole 30 recipe, never from any of the official recipes I’ve seen on the web. It’s so easy this way, and never fails.

What I’m looking for now is a cheaper healthy oil than avocado. I can’t believe how expensive it is. I found some light olive oil in the store, but how can you know if it’s real or not? They could have just dumped a bunch of canola oil in it and nobody even checks it. If anyone knows a legit light olive oil, I’d love to hear about it.


(John) #9

You are better than me, I said to hell with it after my first try failed to thicken and tasted nothing like mayo. Maybe I will try again. Can you post some volumes?


(Roxanne) #10

Make sure it’s a wide mouth mason jar, it usually fits the stick blender (at least mine does). I LOVE these ones for making mayo:

https://www.amazon.ca/Bernardin-750ml-Mouth-9-Pack-Clear/dp/B01C4K80B4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507668144&sr=8-1&keywords=750+ml+wide+mouth+jar


(Crow T. Robot) #11

Your problem was that you had too much oil too soon. You need to start the emulsion process with just a tiny bit of oil, which is why the stick blender in the jar works so well. The oil separates and floats above the other ingredients. Then you put in the stick blender all the way to the bottom of the jar (or other cylindrical container) and it automatically uses just the right amount of oil. It’s so easy and foolproof, you’ll kick yourself for ever having bought mayo.


(Roxanne) #12

I’m going to jinx myself by saying that I’ve never failed at making mayo (only started last year), so I’m puzzled by the number of people who have problems. I use my stick blender and a container that is just wide enough for the head of the stick…either the container that came with the stick blender or a straight wide mouth mason jar. I actually prefer the jar because it’s heavier and doesn’t spin while blending. I love these ones I’ve posted at the bottom of this message because they are about the same size and shape as the container that comes with the stick blender, and they don’t have the “shoulders” that make cleaning a pain sometimes.

I crack a large egg in the bottom, add in a tablespoon or so of dijon mustard. Pulse with the stick blender for maybe 5 seconds to blend well, then start drizzling in avocado oil as I run the blender. Once it starts to emulsify well, I add oil in larger amounts. I add anywhere from 1 to 2 cups of oil in total, depending on how much mayo I want. Note that you only need one egg, it will bind up to 3 cups of oil in my experience. Once done, I usually add a tablespoon of vinegar and blend it in.
(white wine, apple cider, plain, doesn’t matter - my understanding is the acidity helps preserve the mayo). I try to use it within 10 days, but have pushed it to 14 without incident.

I used to warm the egg and mustard to room temperature because “they” said it was necessary, but I’ve since found that it isn’t. Maybe I’m just blessed by the mayo fairy, because I find it easy peasy!

https://www.amazon.ca/Bernardin-750ml-Mouth-9-Pack-Clear/dp/B01C4K80B4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507668144&sr=8-1&keywords=750+ml+wide+mouth+jar


(Crow T. Robot) #13

You can do that, or… just dump everything in, give it a sec to separate and go, which works just as well and no drizzling required. Try it! :smile:


(Roxanne) #14

If I do, I’m afraid I’ll jinx myself!


(Christopher Avery) #15

By memory…
3/4 cup oil
1 yolk
Some small amount of Dijon (Half teaspoon?)
1 Tablespoon red cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice


(Crow T. Robot) #16

My recipe:

1 cup oil
1 whole egg
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice from a bottle
.5 tsp salt

You can also just do 2 Tbsp of either vinegar or lemon juice and skip the other, depending on your taste. Also, it’s not necessary to be perfectly exact. There’s a lot of room for play, and you can always go back and add flavors to taste.


(Jeff Logullo) #17

Been there, done that. First batch worked great… and then I had the next four or five tries turn out like… well, not like mayo! Very frustrating.

Since then I’ve gotten my success rate to 100%. Here’s my theory, and my method:

You are making an emulsion. The process begins by having just a tiny drop of oil being mixed into the water-based liquid and the emulsifying agent. My theory is that failures happen when you are starting with a lot of oil right up front… trapped within the head of the stick blender.

My success rate went to 100% when I started using a whole egg (instead of just a yolk). And my theory is that the white of the egg created enough volume to displace the oil from the inside of the blender head… so when I started whizzing, I was only whizzing a small bit of oil.

  • If your stick blender comes with a jar, use it. The inside diameter of the jar should only be slightly bigger than the business end of the blender.
  • If you need to provide your own container, look for a tumbler in your cabinet (or at the store) with an inside diameter at the bottom that is just about snug around the blender

So here’s how I make my mayo:

  • Grab my stick blender and the container that came with it
  • Add one egg
  • Add juice from half a lemon (about a tablespoon, more or less)
  • Add a good pinch of salt
  • Add 1 c. of oil (I use light olive oil)
  • Put the blender head into the jar
  • Tip the jar almost 45 degrees, rotate the head, and allow any trapped oil to emerge from the side vents of the blender head. The goal here is to have only egg yolk/egg white/lemon juice within the trapped space of the blender head… no oil (or as little as possible)
  • Keep the blender head pressed to the bottom, and put the jar on a level surface. Bring the stick blender to straight up-and-down orientation. All the oil should be above the blades of the blender.
  • Take a deep breath. And… engage!
  • Do not do anything other than watch what’s happening. Do not tilt the stick blender! Do not stop blending! And most of all, do not panic!
  • Within 5-15 seconds, you’ll see that the whirly liquid at the bottom suddenly “snap” and begin to form the lovely emulsion we call mayonnaise. Again, do not move your hands–just watch!

Slowly you should see the oil above the “magic” area begin to be drawn down and incorporated into the growing mayo at the bottom. Soon almost all the oil will have been mixed in. Now (and only now) you can start to tilt, lift, swizzle, stop/start, do whatever you wish to get the last of the liquid oil blended in.

Finally, unplug that weapon of mass destruction, grab your spatula, and transfer your mayo to a wide-mouth Mason jar.

One more tip: if you’re new to this, or you’re still not confident that your blender and jar (and your nerves) are ready, you should practice… with cheap ingredients! Go buy a bottle of cheap oil (canola, soy, etc.) while you hone your skills. No need to risk a cup of expensive quality oil for science. After you are successful, discard that dangerous polyunsaturated-fat mayo (ugh) and then bring out the good stuff and make a proper batch of mayo.

Last thought: my stick blender is a vintage Braun Multiquick with a white plastic body, and vents around the outside of the head. I see that the new models have a head that’s made of steel, more of a triangular shape, with scallops around the bottom (rather than vents on the side). It may be that it’s going to be much harder for you to avoid getting oil inside your blender head… so I think I’d try adding the non-oil ingredients to the jar first, then putting the blender head into the jar next, and finally, pouring the oil into the jar around the blender.

And of course if you’re doing that… you might as well start whizzing the egg/lemon juice only, and then slowly pouring the oil in, just a few drops to start, then a very thin slow drizzle… until you see the mayo start to take shape. Then continue to pour at will.

Sorry this is a long ramble… but it’s been frustrating to read “this is easy” and “multiple failures” here and there. I bet that it’s tougher with some blenders than others.

If you’ve almost given up… hope you’ll give it one more try. It’s worth it :smiley:

KCKO


(Sophie) #18

There’s a lot to be said for technique! Unfortunately, many times words just turn out to be blah blah, and it’s not until you jump in there with both feet that you find out exactly how to do something. At least, that’s how I learn. :blush: Congrats on your success!


(Bacon for the Win) #19

I was never a huge fan of mayo until I made my own. Now I have it with light tasting olive oil or avocado oil. I prefer the avocado oil because hubs is allergic to avocados. More for me! I’m much more inclined now to have tuna or egg salad, and it’s always ready to be made into salad dressing.


(KCKO, KCFO) #20

Maybe this list will help, but honestly good EVOO is expensive too. I trust the avocado oil and organic EVOO at Costco, but if you need it from another source this list might suggest what to use.