Delicious recipe for homemade mayo plus tips for making it fail proof every time! Just 4 ingredients, perfect for novice cooks & better than store-bought! Perfect on a sandwich with my homemade lunch meat and homemade sandwich bread!
Over the years I have learned how to make several condiments from scratch, but something about homemade mayo has always daunted me.
I tackled homemade ketchup when we had tomatoes coming out of our ears, and that was relatively easy. I’ve made carrot top pesto too, which was also easy, but there’s nothing like conquering the most difficult condiment in the collection, right?
As it turns out, all those myths about homemade mayo were wrong! With one amazingly simple recipe (and a couple of tricks), you’ll have delicious homemade mayo ready in less than 2 minutes!
DIY Homemade Mayo
Not only does homemade mayonnaise taste way better than store-bought, it’s also:
- Quick. Make it in 5 minutes!!!
- Easy. It’s so easy that after you make it, you will wonder why you haven’t been all along!
- Frugal. With only a handful of pantry ingredients, homemade mayo is much cheaper than store bought!
What are the ingredients?
- lemon
- kosher salt
- egg
- light olive oil
- flavors/seasonings (optional)
- whey (optional)
What supplies do I need?
Step by step method for making mayonnaise:
In a wide-mouth jar, layer your ingredients as follows. First, the lemon juice. I prefer the taste of freshly squeezed, but you can use bottled lemon juice if you prefer.
Second, add the raw egg. Yep, the whole thing. The egg yolk and all. Crack it in there straight from the fridge (or wherever you keep eggs.) There’s no need to warm, thaw or allow to come to room temperature.
Third, add the salt. I used kosher salt, but table salt is fine too. If you use table salt, reduce the quantity to 1/2 for now. You can adjust this to taste later.
Finally, add the light olive oil in a thin stream. Do NOT use extra virgin olive oil.
Extra virgin olive oil is absolutely delicious in dressings or with freshly baked artisan bread, but it does NOT taste good in homemade mayo (been there, done that).
You need a healthy oil that’s light in flavor, so light olive oil is great, as is avocado oil, sunflower (not safflower), sesame oil and even expeller pressed coconut oil (not extra virgin).
If you’re REALLY feeling fancy, you can also use walnut oil, macadamia oil, bacon grease and ghee (but not all individually, nor all together).
Ps..I don’t use canola oil because canola is chemically extracted using hexane. Cold pressed exists, but it is usually very expensive and hard to find. It’s better to avoid, and just use healthy oils.
Note: I have not tried numerous combinations of all the oils listed above. I tried 50/50 extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil, which didn’t taste very good at all. I’ve also tried light olive oil as the recipe is written, and since it produced an amazing mayo that tasted better than any store-bought I’ve ever had, I stopped there. Feel free to branch out and experiment, and if you do, please leave a comment sharing with us what worked and what didn’t!
Basically, just follow the recipe folks.
Before you do anything else, wait until the egg is at the bottom of the jar and the oils are sitting at the top of the jar. If you’ve followed the tutorial so far and added everything in the right order, this won’t take very long… maybe long enough for you to throw the eggshell in the garden, put the oil and salt away and add the lemon peels to your jar of citrus vinegar.
So, maybe a minute?
When time is up (or when you’re done cleaning), get out your immersion blender and stick it in all the way to the bottom.
With the immersion blender at the bottom of the jar, press the button to “go” and let it blend for 20 seconds while sitting at the bottom of the jar.
After 5 seconds, you’ll have mayo at the bottom as it starts to thicken.
At the 10-15 second mark, you’ll notice the mayo creeping to the top.
At about 20 seconds, you’ll have mayo near the top of the ingredients with a very thin layer of oil right on top.
Very slowly (and carefully), bring the immersion blender up the side of the jar while still blending. As you do this, the thin layer of oil on the top will slowly drizzle down the side of the jar and blend with the mayo underneath.
Keep bringing your immersion blender almost to the top, stopping just short so you don’t splatter mayo everywhere. Your mayo is done when all the ingredients are incorporated together!
Taste your mayo and adjust your salt and/or lemon juice if desired.
Additional Seasonings and Flavors for Homemade Mayo
This recipe is for a basic homemade mayo. It’s absolutely stunning and delicious and has the perfect balance of tangy and creamy. But, some people prefer their mayo to be a bit fancier. If that’s you, consider the following additions to your homemade mayo (add these just after the egg):
- pinch white or black pepper
- dry mustard OR prepared Dijon mustard (in any flavor you’d like)
- using vinegar (apple cider vinegar, white wine, white balsamic, etc.) instead of lemon juice pepper, or using lime juice too
- sweetener (honey, sugar, maple syrup, etc.)
- garlic
- horseradish
- fresh herbs
- paprika
- garlic powder
- crushed red pepper
Why Homemade Mayo Can Fail
Homemade mayo has a bad rep for being difficult, but it’s not really when you understand the two basic foundations that must happen in order for homemade mayo to work:
(1) The oil must be separated from the egg.
Most homemade mayo recipes have you slowly drizzle in the olive oil. That’s to give the emulsifying agent a chance to get in between the water (lemon juice) and oil. If you just dump it all in together with no rhyme or reason, you’re setting yourself up for a fail.
Always add the water (lemon juice) first, then the emulsifying agent (in our case, the egg), then all the seasonings/flavors and finally the oil last. Letting it all sit for a minute gives the ingredients a chance to settle from all the ingredients additions.
(2) There must be enough of an emulsifying agent.
Egg is an emulsifying agent, as is lemon juice, vinegar, and mustard. You must have enough of an emulsifying agent in ratio to the oil for the mayo to turn out correctly. One egg is approximately 3 tablespoons.
My recipe uses lemon juice and when combined with the egg, it’s the perfect ratio for 1 cup of oil. Other recipes call for up to 1 tsp of mustard and reduce the level of acid. Some recipes use 2 eggs. It really depends on your preference, but know that the more oil you use, the greater portion of emulsifier you’ll need.
How to Make Homemade Mayo Last
As is, homemade mayo is good in the fridge for about one week. However, by lacto-fermenting the mayo you can make it last for several months.
To do this, add 1 tablespoon of whey to the finished mayo and stir well. Allow mayo to sit on the counter overnight, or up to 24 hours. Put the mayo in the fridge and you’ve got mayo that will be good for 2 months or more!
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DIY Homemade Mayo
Delicious recipe for homemade mayo, plus tips for making it fail proof every time! Just 4 ingredients, perfect for novice cooks & better than store-bought! Perfect on a sandwich with my homemade lunch meat and homemade sandwich bread!
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 2 mins
- Yield: 1 Jar 1x
- Category: Sauces/Condiments
- Method: Blended
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 large lemon, juiced (or 2 tbsp lemon juice)
- 1 tsp kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
- 1 whole egg
- 1 cup light olive oil
- flavors/seasonings (optional, see below)
- 1 Tbsp whey (optional, see below)
- immersion blender
Instructions
- In a wide-mouth jar, layer your ingredients as follows. First, lemon juice. Second, salt. Third, egg. Finally, light olive oil.
- Wait about one minute, or until the egg is at the bottom of the jar and the oils is sitting at the top of the jar.
- Place the immersion blender in the jar, all the way to the bottom.
- With the immersion blender at the bottom of the jar, press the button to “go” and let it blend for 20 seconds while sitting at the bottom of the jar.
- After 5 seconds, you’ll have mayo at the bottom.
- At the 10-15 second mark, you’ll notice the mayo creeping to the top.
- At about 20 seconds, you’ll have mayo near the top of the ingredients with a very thin layer of oil right on top.
- Very slowly (and carefully), bring the immersion blend up the side of the jar while still blending. As you do this, the thin layer of oil on the top will slowly drizzle down the side of the jar and blend with the mayo underneath.
- Keep bringing your immersion blender almost to the top, stopping just short so you don’t splatter mayo everywhere. Your mayo is done when all the ingredients are incorporated together!
- Taste your mayo and adjust your salt and/or lemon juice if desired.
Notes
If you are using whey, finish the recipe as directed, then add whey and stir in well. Let sit on the counter at room temperature for 24 hours. Then refrigerate.
I also add lemon zest, and 1 fat garlic clove, and citric acid. All that goes in right at the start to keep it super simple and easy.cheapest email service
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Great idea! Thanks Hansley.
I would love to try this recipe, and make it last longer than a week in the fridge, but can you suggest an alternative to lacto-fermenting? I have a cow dairy intolerance so I don’t have any whey on hand.
I have not heard or found in my research another way to make the mayo last longer. Yogurt whey or lacto-fermenting are the only options I can find.
Duh!!! Why have I never thought of using my stick blender for mayo. I used to make mayo decades ago, but it was hit of miss. If one is too impatient in dripping the oil in sloooowwwly the old way, one ends up with dressing instead of mayo. By no means is a ‘bad’ batch of mayo a waste…it’s just a base for a variety of salad dressings! And for the nervous Nellies concerning salmonella and pastured eggs…the salmonella is on the shell, NOT in the egg! Just thoroughly wash the egg, and you’re good to go. Thank you so much for this and the many other recipes I have gleaned from your site.
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I am delighted to hear this recipe works so well for you!!
I am 60, have been cooking my entire life (from scratch), but for whatever reason, homemade mayonnainse has always been my achiles heel. Relentless failure no matter what I tried. I have used a blender, a cuisinart, a whisk, room temperature eggs, an extra egg yolk, and on and on. I tried your method today and it was, literally, a miracle. In exactly the amount of seconds you said, there was my perfectly made mayo. I would hug you if I could. Thank you!
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Ecstatic to hear this, Suzy!!
Thank you this recipe worked very well. I added some mild masala spice and the lemrecipeon pulp too for extra tang. A really great recipe!
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Delfina, so excited to hear about your adjustments and that this recipe worked well for you!
This is fantastic. It never occurred to me to make mayo until now when I’m doing Whole30 and the compliant mayo at the store was $9!!! This worked great for me, and I love that I can store it in the jar that I made it in. No scraping. I did find it a bit salty, so I used less salt on subsequent batches. Thanks for sharing (and for your Whole30 meal plan!)
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So delighted that you loved this recipe, Ginger!
Hello is there any way to avoid the mayo hardening in the fridge?
Hi Gail! If you’re using extra light olive oil, it won’t harden in the fridge.
How long does the Mayo last in the fridge?
Hi Tara,
As is, homemade mayo is good in the fridge for about one week. However, by lacto-fermenting the mayo you can make it last for several months.
To do this, add 1 tablespoon of whey to the finished mayo and stir well. Allow mayo to sit on the counter overnight, or up to 24 hours. Put the mayo in the fridge and you’ve got mayo that will be good for 2 months or more!
this turned out awesome from the first try! the first time I ever made mayo in my life and it worked! thank you for the amazing recipe!
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You’re most welcome!
really great recipe
although i used 1 tbsp vinegar instead of lemon juice
and a normal smoothie blender worked just fine
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Thank you so much for this recipe, it gave me exactly what I wanted
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I am so happy this recipe was what you were looking for, Vanessa!
I was wondering if you have suggestions if you do not have an immersion blender. What else would work? Also, have you tried it with just avocado oil (I saw the mix of olive oil and avocado oils didn’t work well)?
All I use is Avocado Oil and a little Dijon Mustard. Love the Flavor.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve tried to make homemade mayo before but haven’t quite gotten it right yet. In the past, mine has tasted too much like olive oil and not enough like mayonnaise. I’ll try your tip of using light olive oil rather than extra virgin and see if that helps. I’m also excited to try adding whey to preserve it a little longer.
I’m so happy to learn that by using whey I can expect mayo to last longer! Thanks for the tip! I’ve just gotten some plain whey and looking forward to trying it out. 💕
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Planning to try this. I use sea salt how does that go as far as measuring?
Is it fine grain salt?
I Love love LOVE this recipe! I use it all the time, and it’s never failed – BUT I did have to modify it a bit to keep it as thick as I like; I use 3/4 cup light olive oil, and less lemon juice (I add more after it’s done, until it reaches the consistency I like). I also add lemon zest, and 1 fat garlic clove, and citric acid. All that goes in right at the start to keep it super simple and easy. =)
One time I tried 1/2 light olive oil and 1/2 avocado oil, and I really didn’t like the taste at all. Haven’t experimented with the other oils yet, or with using vinegar instead of lemon.
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I’ve been making this recipe for almost 5 years now and it’s so fast and easy to make. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I was grocery shopping for a friend who needed mayo and realized I haven’t had to buy mayo for all these years! It’s a good feeling knowing you don’t have to rely on a store and can make your own. Thank you for a keeper recipe.
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SUPER EASY!!! and delicious!
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Worked perfectly, and took seconds to blend. Beautiful thick Mayo. I used 1 T Ume Plum vinegar and 1 T Lime juice instead of the 2 T lemon juice. My TCM doctor says Ume Plum Vinegar is very healthy for me, and I love it. Reduce the salt by 1/2 if you trade to Ume vinegar, it is very salty. I am very impressed.
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So glad this worked for you, Carol!
I don’t have an emulsion blender, how can I mix to get right consistency? Also How can I fix runny recipe, I mixed all ingredients at same time.
Hi Arnita! I suggest reading the other comments – some have used a blender and some have fixed the consistency when they didn’t follow the recipe. 🙂