Minute Mayo

Do not be fooled into thinking that because this recipe is short (only 4 ingredients) and fast (one minute, give or take) that you won’t end up with a quality product that’s better than any store-bought mayo on the market. This recipe ROCKS!

Some folks shy away from making their own mayo. I’m sure it’s a combination of reasons. We’re constantly told it’s difficult to make and dangerous due to the raw eggs. You have to be the judge of what you feel is dangerous.

I can tell you that I’d rather make my own mayo from ingredients that I can see, touch and pronounce. From ingredients I’ve taken out of my own refrigerator, fresh, rather than purchase something mass-produced and stored at room temperature on a grocery store shelf. Has anyone but me ever questioned why it’s dangerous to make mayo ourselves but it’s perfectly OK to buy it in a grocery store where it’s not refrigerated??  Doesn’t make sense to me, but everyone needs to do what they feel is right.

As for being difficult, well, check this out! If you have the ingredients (and I’m sure you do) and you have an immersion blender and some type of glass container, the most difficult part of this whole recipe is going to be the clean-up!

Get out all of your ingredients: olive oil, egg, lemon juice, salt. I use a wide mouth pint size mason jar. Whatever you use, make sure that the immersion blender will fit all the way to the bottom.

I will recommend making this using “light tasting” olive oil. I tried it the first time with what I had on hand, which was a standard olive oil. It wasn’t light, extra light, virgin or extra virgin. It was “normal” olive oil and it does affect the taste of your mayo. I’d recommend starting out with a “light tasting” olive oil first — it will actually say Light Tasting on the label. If you decide to try a heavier olive oil later on, you’ll know that the difference you taste is because of the olive oil you used.

Add your egg first, then the olive oil and then your salt and lemon juice.

Now, I will say that I wanted to use fresh lemon juice as I was making this, but discovered that I’d used my last lemon in another recipe. RATZ!  Just poor timing … or not. As it happens I made the recipe using bottled lemon and while you can tell the difference if you plan to eat the mayo off a spoon, I really couldn’t tell the difference once I added the mayo to a dish or on a sandwich.

Now you just want to check and be sure that your egg is sitting at the bottom of the jar. It doesn’t matter if the egg is room temperature or straight out of the refrigerator. This is the no-muss, no-fuss part of the recipe. It just works!

Put the immersion blender in the jar straight up (technically, it won’t sit at an angle if you use a pint mason jar) and make sure it’s resting flat on the bottom. Pulse gently until you see the contents of the jar starting to turn white (that’s the emulsion happening) then leave the blender on until blended thoroughly, moving around through the mixture as necessary. The total blending time is probably 30 seconds or so.

I’ve found that the hardest part of the recipe is getting my immersion blender out of the mason jar without dumping mayo on the counter. LOL

Once you taste it, you’ll know if you need to adjust the salt or lemon juice for personal preference. Then jot down how you’ll adjust for next time. This mayo is quick, easy and thick! Just check out how it holds on to the spoon in this next shot. That’s the original spoonful and I used it through all the photos I took, it never fell!