Two-Minute Homemade Mayonnaise

Homemade mayonnaise is so delicious and so good for you when made from whole ingredients. The stuff from the store is full of chemicals and sugar. I once picked up a bottle of the virtuous-sounding olive oil mayo at the store, and it was even worse than the regular stuff. The ingredients list on this classic condiment shouldn’t be a paragraph, and shouldn’t contain anything I don’t keep in my kitchen.

It used to be really tricky to make mayo because it is an emulsion (forcing two things to mix when they don’t want to mix, like cats and me). You had to slowly pour your oil into your egg mixture while whisking like mad. Too much oil too fast and it becomes liquidy slop. For years I used my food processor to whisk for me, and it was much, much easier than the traditional method, but I still had to be very slow and controlled with my oil, and I had a lot of dishes to clean up. Now I make it with an immersion blender, and it takes no more than two minutes. The best part is that I make it in the container I’m storing it in, the almighty Mason jar. Far less clean up.

I have a Kitchen Aid immersion blender, and I in addition to making mayonnaise, I use it for blending soups right in the pan. It’s safer because I’m not moving hot soup from pan to blender and back again, and less mess. I also use it to blend my salsa ingredients after they cook. I’ve had it for years, and it’s worth every penny.

Some notes on ingredients. For oil I used to use the super light olive oil from Costco, but olive oil has become kind of sketchy, and I’m especially suspicious of extra light olive oil. If you use extra virgin olive oil, you will taste it. If you’re ok with that, use it. I use avocado oil because of its health benefits and the mild flavor. The least expensive place to buy it is Costco. Also, white vinegar isn’t my favorite because it is made from corn, but apple cider vinegar with the mother is very flavorful, and you will taste it, so I do use white vinegar. Last, if you are making this from eggs laid by chickens that truly free range, I mean out in someone’s yard or pasture eating weeds and bugs and worms, not grocery store free-range liar liar pants on fire eggs, then the yolks will be dark yellow to deep orange, and this will make your mayonnaise take on a warmer color as well. Powdered eggs (not scrambled egg mix, just plain powdered eggs) do work in this so I have a bunch in my food storage for this very purpose.

Mayo is my condiment of choice. I used to love Ranch even more, but since I can’t have dairy anymore, I’m even more attached to mayo. I dip my roasted potatoes in it, put it on steamed broccoli, on fish, on everything. It’s a wonderfully healthy fat to add to your diet when it is homemade.

In a wide-mouth Mason jar put:

2 eggs

4 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp salt

2 c avocado oil

I stick my immersion blender in and turn it on setting 3 or 4 (out of 9). I let the bottom emulsify about half way up the mixture, which takes about 10-15 seconds. Then I pull the blender up into the remaining olive oil at the top and work it up and down a little until all the oil is incorporated and it’s nice and thick. Maybe a minute total.

I pull out one of my plastic Mason jar lids and it’s ready for the fridge.

One note: since homemade mayonnaise doesn’t have any chemical stabilizers, it will break (separate) if it hits 32 degrees. If you have a cold spot in your fridge that leaves ice crystals on your lettuce, don’t put your mayo there. The farther back in the fridge, the colder it is. I keep mine in the door since I still have a house full of little fingers that love to touch the buttons on my fridge and adjust the temperature and freeze my lettuce.

If you try this, I want to hear all about it!