Want to know how to make homemade mayonnaise? All you need are eggs, oil, mustard powder and lemon juice, and 5 minutes. Here’s the easy recipe!
My journey towards learning how to make homemade mayonnaise started a little over 30 days ago, when the Southern husband and I started out on the Whole 30 eating plan (and more on that later), but let me just say this right now: among the many other benefits of this past month, having to make my own mayo was a game-changer.
As someone who routinely makes her own ricotta cheese, butter and jam (and all of these are both ridiculously easy and one million times better than the store bought variety), you’d think at some point it would have dawned on me that mayo might fall into that category. But no, I’ve only figured out a few weeks ago that eggs, olive oil, mustard powder, salt and lemon juice, my handy food processor and 5 minutes are the only things standing in between me and mayo that leaves the jarred stuff in the dust.
So, because the making of the mayo is only going to take me a sentence or two to explain, here’s my verdict on the Whole 30. As some of you know, the Southern husband and I started this last month, and in a nutshell it meant taking all gluten, sugar, dairy, legumes and alcohol out of our diet.
We were left with protein (fish, beef, poultry, eggs), lots of veggies and fruits, and what the Whole 30 folks describe as healthy fats. Avocados, olive oil, anything made out of a coconut and so on. We went into it for different reasons – me because I had heard wondrous reports of people who were no longer getting chronic headaches (I am one of that headache-suffering tribe – everything from garden variety headaches to torrential migraines). The Southern husband is always up for any kind of healthy eating adventure. And while Whole 30 is not specifically aimed at losing any weight and the two of us are in pretty good shape weight-wise, we both wouldn’t have said no to losing a few pounds.
Want to know how to make homemade mayonnaise? All you need are eggs, oil, mustard powder and lemon juice, and 5 minutes. Here's the easy recipe!So we put the bacon in the freezer (most bacon contains sugar. Sob.) and I made a 30 day meal plan that didn’t include any of that stuff above. A 30 day meal plan that included four dinner parties, just to up the pressure. I bought a spiralizer.
Sure, I missed my merlot and the milky, sugary tea I love in the morning, but let’s put it this way: we did not suffer. We weren’t hungry. We had a grand old time at the dinner parties. And…
…I am going on three weeks without a single headache. As a 2-3 headache a week girl, this is nothing short of a miracle for me. The Southern husband, who regularly gets the sneezies and itchy eyes from allergies hasn’t had the sneezies or itchy eyes since about the middle of the Whole 30. I’ve lost 8 pounds and he has lost 5.
And – bonus points! – because it was that or no mayo in our tuna salad, I figured out how to make homemade mayo. So in addition to reintroducing just a little wine and cheese and bacon back into our diets, the homemade mayo is here to STAY.
So here are the few sentences: put a room temperature egg into your food processor with a little mustard powder and salt. While the food processor is running, slooooooooooowly drizzle the olive oil into the egg mixture. I mean slowly. A trickle.
And here comes something magical I have discovered about my food processor: look at the insert for the feeding tube – that piece you use to push ingredients down into the bowl when you are shredding or grating something. It has a teeny tiny hole in the bottom. If you pour the oil in to the processor through the insert, that teeny hole will trickle the oil in EXACTLY the right amount and at EXACTLY the right speed.
One way or the other, you will see the ingredients start magically turning into mayo almost immediately. When the oil is all in and everything is looking mayo-like, gently stir in some lemon juice.
And voila, you have made your own mayo! Spoon it into a mason jar and admire it, and then put it in the fridge. Or use it to make tuna salad while you are on the Whole 30, or a BLT with fried egg if you aren’t.
The more you know…
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How To Make Homemade Mayonnaise
Yield: About a cup
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Want to know how to make homemade mayonnaise? All you need are eggs, oil, mustard powder and lemon juice, and 5 minutes. Here’s the easy recipe!
Ingredients
- One egg, room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 1/4 cup light olive oil or safflower oil
- Juice from 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- Put egg, salt and mustard powder in a food processor. Process until combined.
- With the machine running, pour in the oil as slowly as you possibly can – a teeny trickle. Blend until the oil is fully incorporated and your mayo looks like mayo!
- Gently stir in the lemon juice.
- That’s it! You made mayo! Store in the fridge after you admire it.
Notes
I love safflower oil best for this recipe. If you are using olive oil, use the lightest color oil you can find. The heavier olive oils can flavor the mayo in a non-mayo-tasting way.
I’m intrigued by this! Two questions: How long does it keep, and what about the raw egg aspect?
It keeps a week or even a little more in the fridge. You can’t really get around the raw egg part, but I am super careful about where I buy eggs and what kind…that’s my best advice on that end!
Just wondering about your headaches and the nitrates?
I try to eat nitrate free bacon( which I have found some locally and Trader Joes has one) and wine is tricky unless you go organic, to eliminate nitrates. I stopped drinking red wine for the most part (love Merlot) and noticed an improvement. A friend of mine switched to Pinot Noir and does better. Cheese can be tricky too. Maybe a little research as you start adding foods back in or maybe it will be trial and error. I hope you will share your findings.
Congrats on staying the course and I am going for the mayo!
Hi Karen! My headaches are definitely linked to something in wine, because I had the same reaction. For me, I think it is the sugar, and I am going to experiment with some European wines (instead of my beloved Californias) because their sugar amount can be lower. I’m also trying organic wines, and the Merlots and Pinots that are lower in tannins. I will definitely keep you posted! Meantime, happy mayo-making!
I make my Mayo by using an Egg Substitute. and bringing Everything to room temperature.
If you still want to make mayo using raw eggs you can do so, using the freshest eggs as possible. Using Organic eggs would also be a big plus.
If you would like to cook the eggs, simply whisk the yolks with the lemon juice and then heat slowly (very slowly) while stirring until it reaches 160°F (about when the mixture coats the back of a metal spoon and the yolk starts producing a few bubbles). Heating too fast will result in scrambled eggs. Place the pan into ice water to stop the cooking and stir until the egg yolk cools down (try not to get water into the pan). then proceed with the recipe as before (add salt, pepper, oil).
Colleen, thank you SO much – I’m getting many questions about the raw egg part. I do always get organic, cage-free eggs, and your alternatives are great. Really appreciate it! 🙂
egg substitute to equal 1 egg – usually 1/4 cup (or 1 whole egg for a traditional version)
Thanks again! 🙂
I would think the lemon juice would cook the eggs like it does for shrimp in ceviche.
I know, but it doesn’t – it just adds that little bit of tang that you want with good mayo! 🙂
I wonder if I can add some garlic, I love it’s flavor and my family too
I’m sure you can – just remember that raw garlic has quite a bite to it, so I would use just a teeny bit. Garlic salt might also be an option?
that a better idea, still I will share my family impression of this mayonnaise
I bet you’d like aioli, which is a classic garlic and olive oil mayo. So very good.
That is a GREAT suggestion!
Can other oil be used : like grape seed, avocado or extra virgin olive oil?
Hi Sandy! You can use any of those, as long as they don’t have a strong flavor of their own, because that will impact the flavor of the mayo. I’d be most careful with olive oil – taste it first – because sometimes it can have its own very pronounced flavor. Hope that helps!
Can you use a blender if you don’t have a food processor? Do you know if it works the same way?
Hi Sue! I’ve never tried it with a blender, but I think it should give you a similar result as long as you pour the oil in super slowly through the opening in the blender lid. The main thing that will be a pain is getting the mayo out of the blender, as it will involve scooping it out around the blender blades. But that’s better than having no homemade mayo at all, right? 🙂