How to Make Mayonnaise:

How to Make Mayonnaise:

To get started, add a neutral oil, one egg, ground mustard, and salt to the bowl of a food processor:

What’s the best oil to use for mayonnaise?

When I say to use a “neutral oil,” I mean one that is neutral in flavor.

My personal favorite for mayonnaise is olive oil, but make sure it’s NOT extra virgin.

Extra virgin olive oil turns bitter in the food processor and blender, and the flavor is too strong anyway.

You want to look for the regular or “light” olive oil.

Another good oil for mayonnaise is sunflower oil, which has an agreeable flavor.

One oil that I don’t recommend is avocado oil. While it is a healthy oil, I find the flavor to be terrible. But I know this is a personal preference!

Alternatives to raw egg in mayonnaise

I want to comment for a moment on the egg situation.

The egg in this recipe is indeed raw, and personally I have been eating raw eggs (in mayonnaise, nibbles of cookie dough, etc) for years without issue.

If you Google ‘how many eggs have salmonella,’ you will see articles (like this one from Slate) that discuss this risk, and it’s estimated that about 1 in 20,000 eggs has salmonella.

That number is small enough that I just go ahead and eat raw eggs when the situation comes up.

However, if you prefer, you can purchase pasteurized eggs to use for homemade mayonnaise, or you can even pasteurize them yourself. I’ve seen lots of tutorials online for that.

I’ve also seen some people say online that if you leave the mayonnaise at room temperature for an hour or two before refrigerating, the lemon juice will kill off the bacteria, but I’m personally skeptical that that’s true. I think it’d be better to use pasteurized eggs in that case.

Process the ingredients for about 30 seconds, until combined and pale yellow:

The liquid will be quite thin.

Next, with the food processor running, slowly drizzle in an additional cup of oil:

You want to do this pretty slowly, over the course of about 60-90 seconds.

This makes the mayonnaise creamier and thicker.

As you incorporate the oil, you’ll see it get thicker and thicker, until it finally looks like this:

Blitz in a couple tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and it’s done!

You can also use vinegar, but I find the flavor of fresh lemon to be better.

Store the mayonnaise in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Enjoy!