Northwest Edible Life

urban homesteading in the pacific northwest

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Magically Fast and Easy Homemade Mayonnaise

Of all the things I demo’d yesterday at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, nothing – nothing – rocked people’s socks like my favorite technique for making excellent homemade mayo in a hurry, using a mason jar and an immersion blender.

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This is the simplest mayo method I’ve ever tried, and I’m consistently happy with the results. I first learned about this idea from the geniuses at Serious Eats, and have only slightly adapted their recipe to make it even easier (because that’s how lazy I really am).

Watch how to make Fast and Easy Homemade Mayonnaise here (the entire thing takes about a minute-and-a-half):

Magically Fast and Easy Homemade Mayo

Ingredients
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
juice of 1/2 a lemon
pinch salt
1 cup oil

Method
Add all to a wide mouth mason jar. Let the oil rise to the top. Place immersion blender at bottom of jar and turn on. As the mayo emulsifies, slowly rise the immersion blender out of the jar and pulse a few times until the whole mixture is thick and creamy.

Keep refrigerated and use within 2 weeks. May be flavored by adding chopped herbs, spices, or citrus zest.

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While I have no problem slathering this mayo on everything and serving it to my family, because this mayo contains raw egg, I wouldn’t feed it to someone in the immune compromised category, and I wouldn’t make it with month-old eggs of questionable pedigree. Use your best judgement as to whether raw-egg mayonnaise is appropriate for you.

This recipe is from the Eating Local in the Depth of Winter recipe demo and presentation I gave at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to learn just how delicious it can be to eat from your garden, even in the “low time.”

To view all recipes in the NWFGS 2013 series, click here.

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Comments

  1. Perfect! I was at the store today grimacing at the ingredients on a jar of mayo and telling myself sternly to make my own. This looks delightfully easy. Thank you!!!

  2. What kind of immersion blender do you have?

    Also, what kind of oil do YOU use and what kind would you recommend for eating Paleo?

  4. I love your blog so much. When I’m finally home full time (soon, soon!), I will be starting from the beginning & reading the whole damned thing through! So many good ideas. Such amazing & spirited & honest writing. SO inspirational! Thank you. 🙂

  5. I just purchased a second immersion blender, this one for my kitchen. I have one for soaping. I hate scrapping little amounts of mayo outta my Vita-mix. I will be giving this a try soon. First need to find something that needs mayo in my gluten free home. Great post.

    • How about Waldorf salad with apples, walnuts and celery? Or potato salad or cole slaw with fresh cut up cabbage and carrots from the garden? Or adding herbs or tomato paste to make a dip for veggies or a sauce if you eat meat. I’ve never been so excited about mayo and it tastes so good and uses up the Meyer lemons and duck eggs I have to make all the other things in my garden taste so good.

  6. So the last time I made mayo using an immersion belnder it picked up the metallic taste from the blade. I know you mentioned your blender is nothing special but do mind sharing the brand?

  7. For all the readers who did not have the opportunity to see Erica “live” at the NW Flower and Garden Show, some highlights: Erica is the first ever chef allowed to do a cooking demo in the 25 year history of the NW Flower Show. It was amazing! Four great recipes plus lots of little tips like the mayo recipe above. The audience loved this demo, and the universal opinion was that Erica should be on FoodTV! She was funny, witty, informative and just wonderful. AND, her whole demo was filmed by GardenTV.com so it may soon be available on the internet.
    I’m baised, because Erica is my daughter, but this was a great presentation and Erica was at the top of her game, which is pretty darn fantastic to see!
    Greg

  8. Oh, one other recepe that rocked the audience–Erica explained how to pan-smoke garlic on the stovetop to use smoked garlic as a vegan substitute for bacon! That alone was worth the price of admission.

  9. So, I’ve made mayo a number of times before, and while it is definitely delicious, I’ve found that it loses its “zing” after about 2 days. Have you really found that your mayo still tastes good for two weeks? If so, I’ve got to figure out what’s different. 🙂

  10. I really loved this recipe. I made the mayo very quickly and easily and I used all the same ingredients, but with course ground Dijon mustard. It was very tasty and I was amazed at how quickly it whipped into mayo. Now, I’m thinking of all the wonderful things I can do with it………
    Thanks, Erica!

  11. It also makes an interesting ‘party trick’ when your guests are of the apron-less variety. I’ve seriously blown some peole’s minds with this one :o)

  12. Oh that is awesome man. I only make my own but have to REALLY want it- I get put off when I have to think about cleaning the food processor. I married my immersion blender in a casual ceremony the other week, I knew we were made to be together. Thanks for this. And thanks P.Wheaton- I’ve been here before on a different mission- all the great sites are starting to find each other, what an awesome time to be alive!

  13. What a fantastic recipe.I just made the mayo and it is beyond belief! I will never buy industrial mayo again! So easy and so good. Thanks !

  14. Easy as pie, but I have a question, Erica. I made this with all olive oil, and the taste was really strong — too much so for my taste. What kind of oil or mix of oils did you use?
    Thanks.

    • I used EVOO my first batch of a different version and I didn’t care for the strong/bitter taste. For Erica’s recipe/technique, I used half extra light olive oil and half coconut oil (melted, natch). Much better, IMO.

  15. I bought my wife an immersion blender for her birthday yesterday. I actually watched the video to see which one you use that fits in the same jars we have. The hens are cranking out eggs and any way we can think of to eat more is welcome. Pickled eggs with mayo (and a jalapeño), deviled eggs (more mayo), Egg salad sandwiches (more mayo yet)…

    Love your blog. I think I might be addicted.
    -M

  17. I thought I was a total failure at making mayo and the whole time I was putting the ingredients together per your instructions, I thought there was no way this was going to work. I was WRONG! I will be making more tomorrow! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

  18. This is amazing!!! Who knew it was so easy?? But do you know of anything that you could substitute for the egg? I’d love a way to make my own vegan mayo. Thanks!!!

  19. Easiest recipe on the web, that I’ve found! Just made this tonight and it’s totally delicious! If you can believe it, this can be even easier if you have a regular blender and a mason jar: place all ingredients into mason jar, screw on blender base onto jar (YES, the DO fit one another in most cases!), blend until smooth and creamy, remove blade and base and replace original jar lid to close. THERE! Homemade mayo made right in its own jar!

  20. People call me cheap, but I prefer frugal. I live alone, so I thought I could never eat that much mayo in 2 weeks, but when I look at the cost, I see the cost of 1 cup of oil, and my ladies provide plenty of eggs, so use it for 2 weeks and let the critters eat the rest.

  21. Wow! just watched the video, then 3 minutes later I have a bowl of lucious homemade mayonnaise that looks and tastes as if I have spent ages drizzling oil into a blender. Delicious and so so easy. I will await the gasps this evening as I serve it with dressed crab to my guests. I have a very basic, ancient, moulinex stick blender so don’t worry that you need an expensive special one.

  22. bought me a little handheld blender for around 15 dollars this morning and made my first mayo this afternoon. So cool :). Thanks for the great and simple recipe! No more store bought mayo for this family, Yayyyyyy!

  23. Why didn’t I try this method first?! I tried making it the “traditional” way, without success (again, I have never never ever been successful making mayo), so I threw my hands up and said, “I need Erica!” Now, not 5 minutes later my mayo is resting in the fridge. Wow – thanks for the great technique.

  24. Love this site; for years neighbors,some family & friends have laughed at me saying I live in the “Dark Ages.” Comments range from, “Hey girl don’t you know Kroger sells that—if you didn’t spend all your time in the kitchen you could have time to go shopping with us.” I tried to ignore it when I could but at times the comments did get under my skin. We no longer live nearby & would you believe I had an email from a friend asking how to can Spaghetti Sauce????? I’ve not answered….

    Thank you all for sharing so much–your generosity especially you Erica for providing a sounding board. I can’t wait for next summer to use the peach skins & pits. As I said i love this site but it sure makes me feel stupid at times!

  26. Make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature before you begin. (I do mine in the blender.)

    If you add a little whey and let the mayonnaise sit for about 7 hours before you refrigerate it, it will “cook” and you won’t have to be afraid of your mayo.

      • I just made this 4x… Trying to fix my errors from whisking by hand then miraculously bf finds the immersion blender I’ve been asking for. Too liquidy. I found the reason mine was still not working was that I let it sit at the bottom of my jar. It’s very important to lift the blender slowly once it starts to emulsify and pulse up and down until thick, magic! Once you get it, it really is easy! Love it. Thanks so much xx

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