Adventures with Homemade Mayonnaise

Before today, I had never made or tasted homemade mayonnaise. It seemed intriguing, but with pretty good store-bought mayonnaise on the market, I wondered why I should bother. Today, I decided to find out if homemade mayonnaise is really as good as I’ve heard.

First, I pulled out an old cookbook that I knew had recipes for mayonnaise. Should I make garlic mayonnaise? Herb mayonnaise? Or should I stick with the basic recipe? Since it was my first try, I decided to do the basic recipe, the basic how to make mayonnaise project.

The key to making mayonnaise, the recipe informed me, is to drop the oil into the egg as you beat it, one drop at a time. My recipe called for one cup of oil. That’s more drops of oil than I care to count. I started dropping.

Everything looked wonderful until I got to about ¾ cup of oil. Then it started to curdle and separate. Fortunately, my cookbook had a remedy for this misfortune. It said to mix one tablespoon of mustard with one tablespoon of curdled mayonnaise and whip. Then I could whip the remaining mayonnaise in, one tablespoon at a time.

After an hour of whipping and blending, and a sore arm, I decided to pour the crap down the sink and go take a shower. I had droplets of oil and egg all over my face, which is probably good for the skin, but I wanted to wash it off anyway.

While in the shower, my competitive nature arose. Would I let a simple egg and some oil beat me? Never. I would be the one to beat the eggs and oil.

I carefully considered what I know about eggs and oil, which isn’t much. But I do know that cream of tartar can act as a binding agent and makes whipped eggs have higher peaks. I wondered if it would work in mayonnaise. Eager to try out my hypothesis, I went back to the kitchen and broke one egg into my blender. I added ½ teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar. I blended until the egg was frothy.

Next, I added a tablespoon of lemon juice, an ingredient in the recipe I started with. I blended that for about 15 seconds. Then, I added only ½ cup of olive oil, one drop at a time, running the blender the entire time. My husband was a bit deaf from the noise by the time I was done.

The result was a concoction that had a distinctly mayonnaisey look to it. The taste, however, was indescribable. It was so delicious, my husband and I actually stuck our fingers in the blender and licked them the way kids lick frosting from a mixing bowl. It would have been better if we’d had some artichokes, but since we didn’t this was the next best thing.

This is definitely something that is worth the time it takes to make it. When I have to die, I think a good way to go would be eating homemade mayonnaise. The taste is slightly more savory than store bought mayonnaise, with a distinct flavor of its own.

I decided I’m going to make a batch of mayonnaise next weekend and add it to my potato salad, to see what it does to the flavor. I’ll write more on that, after I try it out. Until then, here’s my own recipe for mayonnaise. It makes about ½ cup.

Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe
You will need:
A blender
1 egg
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup olive oil

Crack the egg into the blender. Add the salt and cream of tartar. Whip it on the highest speed until the egg is frothy, about 30 seconds. Add the lemon juice and whip again for about 15 seconds.

Now, set the blender on the highest speed, and remove the small cup in the blender top. Keeping the blender running at all times, drop the oil into the egg, one drop at a time, until the entire ½ cup has been blended into the mixture.


The key is to drip the oil in slowly. It helps to use a teaspoon to drip the oil into the blender. If you add the oil too fast, it won’t turn into mayonnaise.

Enjoy.