I’ve had a couple of people ask me if it is okay to share my blog posts. Yes, please do! I love having readers, and I love helping people realize that even our ordinary lives can have an extraordinary impact on someone else’s day. Keep going. The days won’t all be cold winds and snow. The sun will come. In the meantime, there’s always homemade mayonnaise!

Mayonnaise. I have no idea how this relates to anything that really matters in life, but I do think that homemade mayonnaise can make life better, and you can make it in less than 15 minutes, which is less time than it takes to run to the grocery store to buy it when you run out. So today you get my way of doing homemade mayonnaise. I hope it makes your life better, too. Because I love you, you know that right?

How to make TBE* Mayonnaise

(*TBE: The Best Ever, or The Bullough’s Excellent, take your pick) 

A couple of years ago – has it been that long, really??? – I tried making homemade aioli. It’s essentially garlic mayonnaise, and it’s really good. I’ve always loved it at restaurants, and I noticed that the cookbook that came with my VitaMix blender had a recipe. It turned out fantastic, but the big take-away for me was just how easy it is to make your own mayonnaise, and it is worlds better than anything you’ll buy in a jar at the grocery store. Ever since, I’ve been making my own mayo.

True Love Lasts Forever. 

You don’t need a fancy blender to do this. Any ordinary blender will work for it, but you do have to be able to pour into it while it’s running, so something like the Ninja Bullet might not work out so well.

Pasteurizing Your Own Eggs – Easy How-to

Here we go. You need to pasteurize (thank heaven for spellcheck) three eggs. This is not as difficult or time-consuming as it sounds and here are some ways to do this:

First you need three eggs. After you clean up the one you dropped on the floor, you can go on. (Hint: Get the dog to help you take care of that mess.)

Digital Meat Thermometer Egg Pasteurization Method

Immerse 3 eggs in a pan of water. Clip a digital meat thermometer to the side of the pan. Heat the water – not too fast. Don’t let it go over 141 degrees Fahrenheit (60.5 Celcius). 138 degrees (58.8 C) works well, but I find that I have to babysit the temperature through the 138-140 degree range, or it will get too hot. The eggs need to hang out in this hot tub for three minutes. Then you can run them under cool water to stop any further cooking action. All told, this process takes me about five minutes total.

Sous Vide Egg Pasteurization Method

If you have one of those neat water-heating-circulating gadgets, like the Anova or Joule sous vide devices, you can put your eggs in water, set your device temperature to 140 degrees F (60 degrees C) and let it run. Once it gets the water to temperature, let it continue for three minutes. I haven’t actually used our Anova device for this, but it would work.

The Kitchen Sink Method

Our hot water heater is turned up pretty hot. This practice is not recommended if you have small children, due to the risk of burns. However, we have had to weigh the risks with the benefits of having enough hot water for five or six people to shower or bathe on any given day, plus run the washing machine and the dishwasher. If you have a large family, you know what I’m talking about. So, we have the hot water heater set to Quite Hot. I temped it out once, and it gets to about 142 F (61 C) coming from the kitchen faucet.

My way of pasteurizing eggs is this:
Put three eggs in a deep-ish bowl and turn on the hot water full blast. Once the water is running hot, let it continue for 3 minutes. Drain the water off the eggs and they are ready to use in the mayonnaise

(Disclaimer: If you use the kitchen sink method, I’m not responsible for any consequences that come as a result. Obviously, this is not as scientifically-controlled a method as the previous two ways.) 

Makin’ Mayo

In your blender jar/pitcher, put:
¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon (1.2 grams) mustard powder
¼ teaspoon (1.2 grams) white pepper
1 teaspoon (5 grams) salt
3 egg yolks*

• Put the lid on the blender jar and start blending it all together at a moderately slow speed.
• Turn the speed up to about mid-speed and then GRADUALLY pour in 1 ½ cups (355 ml) of oil – I use an olive oil blend.
• It should take about 20-30 seconds to pour it in. DON’T RUSH. Crank the speed of the blender up a little higher for about 15-20 seconds more and it should be nicely blended, thick, and done.  Refrigerate for up to two weeks, roughly.

Honestly, if I make this with olive oil, I don’t like the taste of it very much right away. I LOVE it after it’s been in the fridge for a few hours and the olive oil flavor has time to mellow with the lemon juice and seasonings. If the olive oil flavor is too strong for your liking, just use vegetable oil or light olive oil. Also, don’t use straight extra virgin olive oil. You will end up with mayonnaise the texture of chilled ganache. Or something. Something Not Good.

This recipe makes about a pint of mayonnaise. I may or may not have been known to actually lick the knife on occasion.

*Save your egg whites in a dish in the fridge. It doesn’t matter if a little bit of yolk got in them. I have a delicious use for those. I’ll tell you in another post this week. You will love it.