Stop Whatever You're Doing: You can make Mayonnaise from Bacon Fat!

(Windmill Tilter) #1

Yes, the post title is a little dramatic. But seriously, stop whatever you’re doing; this is more important! If this has been posted before and I missed, I apologize, the idea of Bacon Mayonnaise is just so very exciting. Like most ketonians, I cook a lot of bacon. That leaves me with a lot of bacon fat. I cook with it, I make fat bombs with it but still, when you buy bacon in pallet quantities, there are just so many things one can do with the fat.

This morning I had two problems; we were out of mayonnaise and I had added yet another 100ml of bacon grease to the fridge. This annoys my wife. I thought to myself, wait a minute; if I can make mayo out of avocado oil, why can I make it out of bacon fat? Turns out you can!

After a bit of google searching, I found a link to a Bacon Fat Mayonnaise (yes the caps are appropriate) recipe deep in the archives of the food blog (Serious Eats) of my favorite food blogger J Kenji Lopez written in 2009. Low an behold he figured out how to do it. He failed with his initial experiments, but because he is J Kenji Lopez, he didn’t give up; he reached out to a Harvard food science professor who gave him the answer. You can’t emulsify bacon grease because it is too high in saturated fats; and the shape of the fat molecule makes it difficult. To resolve the issue, all you need to do is mix it in the correct ratio with an unsaturated fat. Like avocado oil.

Incidentally, that’s what I currently make mayo out of. The good stuff is expensive. Bacon grease I have by the freezerful. And it’s pissing off my wife. Before you ask, no I haven’t made it yet. Alas I have no eggs. I was so excited though I had to share this recipe immediately. I can’t wait to finish work and get to the grocery store. Enough preamble. Behold:

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup rendered bacon fat, melted
  • 3/4 cup avocado oil
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon water, plus more to correct consistency
  • lemon juice to taste
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 strips crisp bacon, crumbled

Directions

  1. Combine bacon fat and canola oil in 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Whisk to combine.

  2. Add egg yolks, Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, and water to bowl of food processor. Run processor for 5 seconds to combine. Scrape down sides of processor bowl with rubber spatula. With processor running, slowly drizzle fat into bowl in a thin, steady stream, stopping and scraping down sides as necessary. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste, and adjust consistency with water until thick, smooth, and creamy, but not mouth-coatingly waxy. Stir in crumbled bacon bits and sliced scallions, if using. Store in refrigerator in air-tight container for up to two weeks.

Carnivore tactical retreat
Mayonaise on a carnivore diet
(Cindy) #2

I’ll be trying that,!

(Daisy) #4

I made baconnaise a few months ago. It did not agree with my tummy. I need to try it again and add a little less bacon grease I think. I did the whole egg recipe with the immersion blender and just used bacon grease instead of whatever they were calling for.

(Windmill Tilter) #5

@ketodaisy

From what I read, Lopez tried bacon fat alone at first, but he felt like it didn’t emulsify properly at room temperature, and that it wasn’t creamy enough. That said, I don’t think there is any way to make a bacon based mayonnaise that isn’t awesome. He also worked for Cooks Illustrated & America’s Test Kitchen for years. He once spent 2 weeks testing various methods of putting the perfect char on a ribeye, so there’s that…:thinking:

I’m looking forward to trying some myself. I’m now reconsidering starting my 3 day fast tomorrow. Maybe an extra feast day would be a good idea… :slight_smile:

(Daisy) #6

This was the base recipe I tried, subbing the bacon grease for the olive oil. It was a beautiful consistency and tasted good, but sent me running to the restroom lol

(Consensus is Politics) #7

I’d be wanting to swap out that canola oil with something else. Im pretty sure its not healthy. Its a hydrogenated oil isnt it? An unstable plant oil forced to be shelf stable at room temperature. And if i recall corectly, causes a lot of inflamation. If im wrong about this, just slap me a round a bit and toss me in the corner. :cowboy_hat_face:

Edit: just watched a video on the making of canola oil. No mention of hydrogenation of it. And no mention of hexane. Although they did mention that the second pressing uses a solvent to extract left over oil.

Which surprised me. I was under the impression that all seed oils needed hexae to extract their oils. The that pressing the seeds would not work to extract any oils. The video claims the seed has a high oil content. Something like 30%.

(Windmill Tilter) #8

I agree 100%. Canola oil is a chemistry project. I’ll be using some avocado oil. Some folks call avocados “tree bacon”. So basically, mine’s gonna be Tree Bacon Oil & Bacon Oil… :smiley:

TBOBO Mayo???

(Consensus is Politics) #9

:sunglasses::sunglasses::sunglasses:

Bacoayo?
Bacono?
BacAvayo?

#10

Made some a few weeks ago. It was okay, consistency was great, but it had a slight burnt flavour that was most likely due to not straining the fat well enough, leaving a little bitter residue from the cooking.

(Consensus is Politics) #11

Looks like i have a new project to look forward to.

(Windmill Tilter) #12

I like Bacoayo. It’s sounds like Peruvian/Bolivian specialty food. With a name like that it’d fly off the shelves at Trader Joes…:yum:

(Windmill Tilter) #13

@PetaMarie I think we were talking about what to do with bacon fat or beef fat the other day and you mentioned that when you have too much you use some of it to make suet for the birds in the winter. Well, maybe here is another option!

#14

(guacamole + bacon)
Guacon
Bacomole

or how about Avo-lardo
:smiley:

(Windmill Tilter) #15

I love it! I’m getting a Trademark attorney on the phone…:smiley:

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #16

Oh I saw your post and I’ve been thinking about it ever since, believe me!

(Justin S) #17

Oh man, this is such an amazing idea! And I just ran out of AvoMayo with tonight’s dinner, AND I happen to have just got up to 8oz of strained bacon fat last night (first time collecting it)!

I am wondering if this will work using the immersion blender method I use for the AvoMayo… I will give it a try and report back.

Another thing to test might be using a tablespoon or so of sunflower lecithin like I use in my coffee to help emulsify the ghee & liquid MCT. It works like a charm in that, but not sure if it would work the same in this scenario. Low profile flavor, but it tends to create a weird sort of sediment in the coffee after 10-15 minutes. And the comments about the molecule structure make me skeptical. It does work for straight coconut oil though, so there might be a chance. Maybe that will be experiment #2, haha.

Also, hello! I’m new here, but have been reading for about a month. Just joined today. Good crowd over here. :smiley:

(Windmill Tilter) #18

Welcome to the forum! Please do try it out and let us know how it turns out with the immersion blender. I bet that will work really well.:slight_smile:

With 8oz of bacon fat to work with, you definitely try the sunflower lecithin as well!

(Windmill Tilter) #20

I’m been meaning to post pics of the finished product. It seriously only takes 5 minutes. I whipped up some fresh bacon so the grease would be just out of the oven. From 3/4lb of bacon I got 1/4cup of bacon oil. I added 1/2 cup avocado oil. The resulting mayonnaise was really fantastic. What made me think of it was that I used some tonight to make ranch dressing. Bacon ranch dressing actually! This stuff is really worth the 5 minutes. :smile:

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(Little Miss Scare-All) #21

Just bought some avocado mayo. It was hard to find some without lime (I hate lime), and found some without it. But randomly had rosemary in it. Funny flavor.

I like regular old Hellmanns but booooo for the seed oils. I seem to hate the flavor of any other mayos. Every one Ive tried tasted funny to me.

I like Burger Kings mayo lol. Wish that came in a jar.

(Marianne) #22

Ha, ha! There are a lot of bacon addicts here that will love you for this!