Homemade Mayonnaise: Technique, Troubleshooting, Storage

[Enzian]

I was watching Alton Brown on Good Eats make a batch of mayo. He filled a regular store-bought mayonnaise jar with his homemade concoction and proceeded to say that We should use it within a week.

A week!?

That's not a lot of time to mow through some mayo, man! I make a ton of egg salad sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches, tuna fish sandwiches - I use a lot of mayo - yet a regular store-bought jar of mayo still seems to last an eternity on the door of my fridge.

Are there additives to the store-bought variety that can increase it's longevity so much, or is my beloved AB watching his 6 and erring on the side of his lawers?

[andiesenji]

It develops a metallic taste if it does not become rancid. Believe me you would not like it.

Make a smaller batch. However if you go to the trouble to make it you will find that you can use it up fairly rapidly.

[Bux]

Truthfully, we haven't had any homemade mayonnaise around in a while, which also means we haven't had any mayonnaise around the house. There are no commercial brands that really compare. Wait there was one that was acceptable, but it had a short shelf life. We've been tending to make tuna salad with olive oil and vinegar, that's all, but I do miss it on the occasional cold steak or roast beef sandwich.

I think Alton Brown is erring on the side of safety, both your health and his bank account. These days with rampant salmonela, I'm almost surprised anyone is suggesting making mayonnaise at all for fear of a lawsuit. That said, the shelf life is short when compared to the intert (dead) stuff in the supermarket jar. In addition to preservatives, my understanding is that the egg yolks are pasturized in the commerical stuff. It's just not the same product as you can make at home. I find most of it so sweet that the amount of sugar must act as a preservative. Make it in small batches and learn to throw out what you don't use in a reasonable time frame.

[Chad]

You might want to check out this thread on homemade mayo.

Oh, and Jack Lang's Non Stock Based Sauces in the eGCI. Jack (Jackal10) is pretty amazing. If this doesn't answer your questions, well, it's beyond the ken of modern science.

I'd suspect that if properly stored, your mayonaise will last considerably longer than a week. Alton's lawyers probably made him say that.

Chad

[Jason Perlow]

If I had a large jar of homemade mayo, I would make lots of BLTs, and have a lobster roll party.

[bleudauvergne]

That's funny, I was just thinking about mayo. I'm like bux in that we don't buy it, we only make it at home. But we make a small batch at least once a week. I'm reading these old old French cookbooks and mayonnaise in the sauce sections of these books. In my mind, I guess I've always known that mayo is a sauce but growing up I always classified the store bought kind as a condiment. Reading these old books has it taking on new possibilities in my mind.

click

When I make it I only just do a blender mayo with one egg (like whole egg mayo), and I don't max on the oil. I always incorporate at least a part of the oil with olive oil and sometimes add walnut oil or even a drop or two of sesame oil depending on what I'm using it for.

I like mayo maison dolloped on the plate with cold meats and pickles.

We recently had pierreade, which is the french variation of the hot stone which comes out with thinly sliced raw meats where everyone grills their own at the table. It was served with 4 different mayo based sauces, each with different herbs and flavorings.

Veggies are great dipped in it, actually anything dipped in mayo is good.

A few capers chopped it's a fabulous sauce for lobster, langouste, and shrimp - try it!

Deviled eggs are always good using mayo maison.

The cookbooks I'm using are recommending it's use as a salad dressing - you might explore what directions you could go with that.

Tuna salad, chicken salad, etc.

Interested to hear how others use home made mayo.

[Jinmyo]

Grated wasabi or horseradish. Great for grilled shrimp or chickpea frites.

[Jason Perlow]

Grated wasabi or horseradish. Great for grilled shrimp or chickpea frites.

Or, you mix the Pacific Farms stuff in with a touch of french mustard, and slather it over burgers or roast beef sandwiches.

[bleachboy]

Grated wasabi or horseradish. Great for grilled shrimp or chickpea frites.

Yum, I agree. Also great for a fish sandwich, although I'm a remoulade addict as well.

[andiesenji]

I think Alton Brown is erring on the side of safety, both your health and his bank account. These days with rampant salmonela, I'm almost surprised anyone is suggesting making mayonnaise at all for fear of a lawsuit.

I buy pasturized eggs at Vons, the only market that carries them near my home.

Trader Joe's carried them for awhile but they didn't move quick enough so they discontinued them.

A few upscale markets also carry them but none are close enough for me to visit on a regular basis.

They are great for making mayo and eggnog, Caesar salad, etc.

[daisygirl]

My husband makes homemade horseradish mayo at home and we store it in a glass jar with a tight twist cap in the fridge, and it's good for a month and sometimes longer. (If I really shouldn't keep it this long, someone please tell me, but the texture stays smooth, it doesn't have any funny smells/tastes, nor does it ever give me any reason to throw away.) So as much as people would worry about the raw egg content, I say just use your physical senses to guide you on whether to keep or ditch it. Besides, the acid (vinegar) denatures protein, so the egg is as good as cooked.

[bleachboy]

Besides, the acid (vinegar) denatures protein, so the egg is as good as cooked.

That's what Alton Brown said too. In fact, he recommended leaving it in the jar on the counter for a few hours to kill the bacteria. The reasoning is that acids (like lemon juice/vinegar) do better germ-killing work at room temperature.

A month would be pushing it for me, but I am in agreement on the point that if it smells and tastes OK, I don't have a problem eating it, regardless of what the FDA might say. I have never given myself food poisoning, so I guess it's a good policy. :D

[budrichard]

I can't remember the last time I had commercial Mayo. To avoid the potential salmonella problem, I boil the eggs for 4-5 minutes, scrape out the contents into the Kitchenaid food processor, that contains a little lemon juice and white vinegar and hit the Start button. after a minute or so, add your oil then salt and its Mayo, better than anything you can purchase. -Dick

[andiesenji]

My husband makes homemade horseradish mayo at home and we store it in a glass jar with a tight twist cap in the fridge, and it's good for a month and sometimes longer. (If I really shouldn't keep it this long, someone please tell me, but the texture stays smooth, it doesn't have any funny smells/tastes, nor does it ever give me any reason to throw away.) So as much as people would worry about the raw egg content, I say just use your physical senses to guide you on whether to keep or ditch it. Besides, the acid (vinegar) denatures protein, so the egg is as good as cooked.

The magic word here is "horseradish" - - - It acts as a preservative. Mustard does also.

The acid does kill the bacteria at room temperature and it does take several hours to work. However in the rare case of an egg that has been in storage for a long time and perhaps has not been kept at the optimum temperature after purchase, the salmonella can grow and produce toxins which are not destroyed by the acid or by cooking.

However that is very, very rare. The egg board in Calif. estimates that one in 50,000 eggs is affected by salmonella and of those, only 1 in 10,000 would have been in conditions where the salmonella would be able to incubate.

The safe way is to keep the eggs refrigerated, if you plan on grocery shopping and being out for an extended time, take a small ice chest along and put eggs, dairy and meat in it.

I keep one in my van all the time and just buy an 80 cent bag of ice to keep the stuff cool. No worries!

[jayt90]

I boil the eggs for 4-5 minutes, scrape out the contents into the Kitchenaid food processor, that contains a little lemon juice and white vinegar and hit the Start button.

I believe that's false mayo, almost like using hard boiled yolks for a fool proof concoction. Not the same flavour as raw yolks.

[Bux]

I didn't want to suggest how long we might keep home made mayonnaise in the refrigerator, lest someone else suffer for our bad habits. Our son-in-law who's a chef and whose food safety standards come from work in Michelin three star and NY Times four star kitchens in France and NY, just shakes his head when he looks into our refrigerator. At the same time, like most Frenchmen, he doesn't understand why American's keep their eggs in a refrigerator. On the other hand, salmonella hasn't been the widespread problem it is here.

In an old thread on eGullet it was suggest that refrigerating eggs has a disastrous effect on flavor and it may be one reason why eggs seem to taste so much better in France. If refrigerating eggs is detrimental to their flavor, I suggest cooking or pasteurizing them is also going to change the taste and not for the better. Recipes for a sauce made from hard boiled eggs and oil appeared in American newspapers and magazines after salmonella became a great concern. We seem to be backing away from the fear as we take a good look at the real odds, but the concern should be there and we should clean up our poultry raising standards.

[kurl]

I definitely do the weekly batches thing, though we store it in a saran-wrap-covered glass bowl, which is probably not as good for preservation as a jar with a lid.

[bleachboy]

Of course, modern "factory farming" have made eggs much safer, and pork so safe you could practically eat it raw.

If you're like me, though, you've tried to escape agribusiness and source things like eggs and meat from local producers. I have to wonder what the salmonella risk is from non-graded eggs?

[Katherine]

The acid you add to homemade mayonnaise does not kill pathogenic bacteria, though it will retard their growth somewhat. Don't count on it to save you from contaminated eggs.

I keep homemade mayonnaise in the refrigerator until it spoils, then I chuck it. In the winter it lasts two weeks, and in the summer for one. Then it gets moldy, on the surface and throughout. Ick. Eat it fresh.

[Pickles]

I currently haven't heard that most of our population has been recently wiped out by this "widespread" problem of salmonella contamination. Although one (I repeat..ONE) case of salmonella is considered an "outbreak" you don't hear much about it on the news, do you? I wonder why that is....seeing there are so many people allegedly dying of it? Alton is right about leaving the homemade mayo to "rest" at room temp to allow the acid to work on any critters that may be there ready to gitcha. Making the mayo with pasteurized eggs is a good way to go. I am not sure I would keep it for a week, but he's probably not assuming most people blow through a quart of mayo every couple days. I dunno.

Mayo Haters Club

Food Safety Articles

And Mayo Based Sauce Safety

The microbiological hazard can be eliminated if certain precautions are taken, such as those used in the commercial preparation of mayonnaise. Acid ingredients in mayonnaise, if in sufficient concentration or amount, can eliminate salmonellae from raw egg yolks if given an adequate amount of holding time at room temperature after manufacture

Edited May 29, 2004 by Pickles (log)

[snowangel]

There are a million things I can worry about. The joy from homemade mayo is so great I decided years ago that it was one thing I wasn't going to worry about.

[bleachboy]

There are a million things I can worry about. The joy from homemade mayo is so great I decided years ago that it was one thing I wasn't going to worry about.

Amen, sister.

[marie-louise]

I would think how long it keeps would depend partly on how fresh the eggs are. I make mine in small batches, and keep it for a few weeks. I don't recall it ever getting moldly. I tend to put a fair amount of lemon juice in mine, plus a little Dijon.

[andiesenji]

I currently haven't heard that most of our population has been recently wiped out by this "widespread" problem of salmonella contamination. Although one (I repeat..ONE) case of salmonella is considered an "outbreak" you don't hear much about it on the news, do you? I wonder why that is....seeing there are so many people allegedly dying of it?

I personally had one "outbreak" of salmonella three years ago and obviously I didn't die but I certainly wanted to at one point. My case and that of six other affected people was following a wedding reception and the culprit was not eggs but salad, apparently contaminated by proximity to raw poultry in the prep stage.

Going to the ER in the middle of the night is no fun and the sadistic ER doc got a lot of fun out of giving me an injection to stop the most violent effects of the infection by saying "this may sting a bit". (I was severely dehydrated by this time and they also had started an IV in my other arm.)

I felt like I had been shot in the arm by a 30.30 slug. It did make me forget about my other complaints, all I could think of was whether or not my arm was going to fall off. While there, two other people who had attended the reception came in and later we learned that four others had also been ill enough to go to an ER.

I have to admit that the injection worked immediately but it was one I will never have again.

I prefer to be cautious and prudently avoid any raw greens at such functions. It is also why I use the pasturized eggs.

I would use irradiated eggs if they were available.

[chromedome]

Salmonella is carried on the outside of the eggshells, having been acquired from the hen's innards. If I am going to prepare a mayonnaise (or anything else using raw eggs) I give them a good scrubbing with a green 3M scrub pad, some hot water, and the antibacterial dish soap I use. Any sanitizer would do the job, for that matter.

And of course, once the eggs are in the water, wash your hands, too...

My sister is so paranoid about mayonnaise that she won't even use it in her son's school lunches. I should e-mail her some links to recent studies showing that commercial mayonnaise is so acidic that it *kills* salmonella bacteria injected directly by the researchers!