The pimento cheese thread got me thinking about mayo, and stupidly simple it is to make at home. My guess as to why people don't make it at home is because they use a little at a time for sandwiches and such, and making a teaspoon of mayo for a sandwich is just silly. However, for things like chicken salad, pimento cheese, tuna salad, potato salad, etc., it should be a required element for the dish, in my opinion.

There are different methods to make it. You can use a whisk, which is fine for smaller quantities. However, for larger amounts, it can get quite tiresome, and you need a strong whisk to do it. You can use a blender, though I find that a blender incorporates too much air into the sauce. I've found the food processor does a good job of getting the emulsion going, and keeps it from getting too much air into the mayo. So here we go, homemade mayo.

1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup of a neutral oil (vegetable, canola, safflower, or corn oil work fine, but I prefer plain vegetable oil for this.)
Salt

Place the egg yolk and lemon juice in the work bowl of your food processor. Pulse 4-5 times to incorporate the egg yolk and lemon juice. Turn the food processor to on, and very, very slowly add the oil. To start with, I begin with about a drop per second. Once the emulsion is formed, you can add the oil in a thin stream. If it looks like you're getting an oil slick on top, stop adding oil, and let the emulsion take all the excess oil. The important part is to not go too fast, lest you get too much oil at one time and it breaks. Once you're done adding oil, taste it and add salt to your taste.

Congrats, homemade mayo. It's a blank canvas that takes a lot of seasonings. Want chipotle mayo? Add some chipotle powder. Want more acid? Add more lemon juice. Want something that resembles an aioli? Mash a couple cloves of roasted garlic, and add that in.

One of the main things to remember when making mayo is that it is an emulsion, and these can take time to form. Often times, the reason mayo breaks isn't because of too much oil, it's because there isn't enough water in the emulsion to start with, and you've got a weak emulsion that reaches its tipping point and breaks. If you find that you're mayo is breaking, stop and add a couple drops up to a teaspoon of water in small increments. If the water doesn't fix it, you're going to need another egg yolk. Dump the mess in the work bowl into another bowl, and add an egg yolk to the work bowl. Turn it on, and slowly add the gloop from the first attempt, and it should come back together.

Excellent advice

Personally, I thing by the time you clean all the parts of a food processor it's more work than just whisking it up.

Grapeseed is another good oil

Meyer lemons are worth buying if they are in stock

Ok oh wise one...how long will this keep? Can I make a bigger batch, then make flavored mayos and store them in the fridge just to use whenever? Or does this have a short shelf-life than my jar of Hellman's that lasts about 3-4 months in our fridge?

I would make a small batch first and see how long it lasts. In other words, I don't know.

I grew up HATING mayo, but made some once for an Emeril recipe, and found I could sit and eat it with a spoon!

I think that a big reason that people don't make their own is that people are scared of raw eggs. The acidity of mayo will keep it safe, if you keep it cold, and the percent of eggs contaminated by salmonella is pretty low to begin with. Per the egg institute (certainly not unbiased, I'll admit), about 1/20,000 eggs is contaminated with salmonella. Eggs and Food Safety

I use extra light olive oil, just because it's what I tend to keep around for sautéing.

I love mayo in small batches, so I make mine at the house, but not the restaurant. At one point I was gonna make my own condiments, in general, but it gets labor intensive(hard to find qualified, consistent help) and people don't always appreciate it.

Great post, Htown!

I had the hardest time trying to make my mayo with just a whisk. initially, i was able to do it, but then somehow it just stopped working.

I got an immersion blender and that's been a godsend. I also started adding a 2nd yolk for about 3/4-1 cup of oil. that seemed to help build a better immersion.

as for how long it keeps, I've generally made the same size batch HTown used and it usually keeps for at least a couple weeks. I've read that you should use it within a few days, but I'm not sure how much more of a risk (if any) there is by going past that. I've never gotten sick, nor noticed any poorer taste, fwiw.

and it really does make a huge difference. well worth the effort. much like salsa, I'll never buy it from the store again. homemade tastes so much better and doesn't take very long.

I haven't bought mayo in months...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GbPF_rLpd9o

i like mayo, but i've been unimpressed by my attempts at homemade. what am i missing? i had a fine emulsion, but the taste was not great. i ended up throwing it out and going back to hellman's.

More salt and lemon juice or some other form of acid.

it tasted of oil...

Rancid oil maybe? Or you possibly just had a batch of oil that wasn't as good as it should have been.

What kind of oil?
It seems that, since Rachel Ray started spewing EVOO every time she uses oil, a lot of people have forgotten about other oils. Not saying that's you, just wondering if maybe you used olive or something. The oil in mayo should be pretty much flavorless.

i bought some grapeseed oil the other day, perhaps i'll try it with that.

You would be surprised how much sugar is in Helmans. We did a blind side by side with home made and helmans, most thought I subbed mercile whip when they tasted them side by side.


I wouldn't use olive oil in my mayo. I stick to neutral oil myself. Canola, grapeseed, heck even veg oil -though rare.


If your lacking flavor, add salt and lemon like stated. But real may isn't that strong, most of us are used to helmans, which honestly isn't that good......

_______________________________________________________
Bacon: the candy bar of meat.

I started buying Dukes at HEB...I think it is much better than Helmans. Might consider making homemade just to try it.

Been wanting to try this out, as I really like good mayonnaise on a hot burger or grilled chicken sandwich. Tried the immersion blender because I saw where someone used one up the thread. I was good with my egg, lemon juice and about 1/2 cup of grapeseed oil. I had mayo at that point. Then it all crashed. I tried more eggs, more lemon juice and water to no avail. It was all a freaking mess. Threw it out and ate my olive oil mayo. Total fail. I will get the food processor out next time.

fuzzy- what happened after you'd done the egg (i assume you used only yolk?), lemon juice and oil? Were you trying to add something else after you had mayo?

using an immersion blender has worked well for me (god knows I'd had enough failed attempts by hand and regular blender).

fwiw, a couple things I figured out along the way...using 2 yolks helps build up the emulsion (especially if you're not using super large eggs). also, just take it slow in the beginning. with the immersion blender, you can blend it a little while with just a little oil to get things going. once that emulsion forms, you should be able to add more oil (though slowly always helps).

That was my first try. I used the yolk only. I probably put too much oil in it too fast. I had extra hands pouring oil while I held the bowl and blender. I will get the food processor out next time.

problem with the food processor is that you need either a small one (if you're just doing a small batch, like you were) or you need to make a big batch.

I'd personally give the immersion blender another try and just try adding an additional yolk, and slow down the oil. i'd be willing to bet it works out this time.

"Its hard to respect France after bailing them out of two big ones. But you have to give it to them for inventing Mayonnaise!" Miller Beer Commercial (I think)

Mayo is so versatile. There aren't many protein based dishes where Mayo wouldn't make a good complement!

I add a dash of mustard powder when I make it.

Thanks HTown!

Can you put too much egg yolk in mayo? What does it do?

About the only negative I can come up with adding more egg yolk is that you could make it too rich and eggy tasting.

Mustard powder is a fine addition as well. Since mustard also contains lecithin (an emulsifier), it will help keep the emulsion stable.

you can also just adjust the amount of oil/acid if you end up with too much yolk. really, as long as you have the emulsification, you can do what you want from there.