Easy Homemade Mayonnaise

Written by
Danilo Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.
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Danilo Alfaro
Updated 10/26/20
Homemade mayonnaise in a glass jug

 Will Heap / Getty Images
  • Total: 20 mins
  • Prep: 20 mins
  • Cook: 0 mins
  • Servings: 4 to 6 servings
  • Yield: 1 cup
Nutritional Guidelines (per serving)
46 Calories
4g Fat
0g Carbs
3g Protein
See Full Nutritional Guidelines Hide Full Nutritional Guidelines
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories 46
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 4g 5%
Saturated Fat 1g 4%
Cholesterol 78mg 26%
Sodium 321mg 14%
Total Carbohydrate 0g 0%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Protein 3g
Calcium 12mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Making homemade mayonnaise doesn't have to be a major effort, and you don't need to wait until you're scraping the bottom of your store-bought mayo to make your own. Making mayo is a wonderful starting point for making all kinds of salad dressings, like blue cheese, Thousand Island, and ranch, as well as sandwich spreads like Russian dressing.

For starters, a light, neutral-flavored oil like safflower or canola oil will give the best results, but once you've mastered the technique, you can start experimenting with oils that have more distinctive flavors, like walnut oil, avocado oil, or hazelnut oil.

Making mayonnaise is a matter of creating an emulsion of egg yolks and oil. The acid in the vinegar does more than add flavor—it increases the amount of oil the egg yolks are able to absorb, which makes the emulsion more stable and less easy to mess up. But those acidic ingredients are also essential flavorwise. Egg yolks and oil are both ingredients with relatively mild flavors, so the vinegar and lemon juice, as well as the vinegar in the Tabasco and mustard, help to wake things up.

Ingredients

  • 2 egg yolks (room temperature)
  • 3 teaspoons white wine vinegar (divided)
  • 1 teaspoon prepared mustard (room temperature)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (or to taste)
  • 1 dash Tabasco sauce (or to taste)
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice (room temperature)

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Using an electric hand mixer, stand mixer, or a wire whisk, whip the egg yolks for a minute or two until they're thoroughly beaten.​

  3. Add a teaspoon of vinegar and whisk for about half a minute.

  4. Then add the mustard, salt, and Tabasco and beat for another 30 seconds or so.​

  5. With the mixer going full speed (or with your arm whisking as hard as it can), add the oil very slowly, as little as a drop at a time.​

  6. When the emulsion starts to form, you can add the oil a little more quickly, but keep it at a fairly moderate stream. Adding the oil too fast will break your mayonnaise.​

  7. When the emulsion thickens, add a teaspoon or so of vinegar to thin it out. Continue adding oil, stopping occasionally to add more vinegar if the mixture gets too thick.​

  8. Slowly add the lemon juice, both to add a bit of tang as well as to achieve the right consistency.​

Raw Egg Warning

Consuming raw and lightly-cooked eggs poses a risk of food-borne illness.

Tips

  • Store any unused mayonnaise in the refrigerator, where it will keep for a day or two (or longer if you use pasteurized eggs).
  • A stand mixer is definitely best for making mayonnaise, although an electric beater is also effective.
  • Use a glass or stainless steel bowl to make your mayonnaise. The typical electric stand mixer features a stainless steel bowl, so you're fine. The issue is that aluminum bowls react with the acids, which will cause both a metallic flavor to be imparted to the mayo, as well as a slightly grayish hue.
  • If your emulsion should break, you can fix it by forming a new emulsion. Grab a clean bowl, add a teaspoon of lemon juice and whisk in a tablespoon or more of the broken sauce. Once that has emulsified, you can go ahead and slowly drizzle in the rest of the broken mayonnaise, while whisking continuously.

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