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This Homemade Mayo is creamy, smooth, and incredibly easy to make at home. Ready in minutes with simple ingredients and no preservatives.
Homemade Mayo might sound intimidating, but it’s actually quick and easy to make at home. You just need a few simple ingredients and an immersion blender, and you can have rich, creamy mayonnaise in minutes.
Once you try homemade mayonnaise, it’s hard to go back to store-bought. The texture is smoother, the flavor is fresher, and it works beautifully in everything from sandwiches and wraps to salad dressings and dips.
Plus you can make your own variations to match whatever you are using it for. Add garlic, chili powder, herbs, or whatever other flavors you like.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Egg – Pasteurized eggs are recommended for this recipe
- Mustard
- Lemon Juice
- Garlic
- Oil – You want a neutral-flavored oil, like avocado oil that’s light in flavor. Canola oil, sunflower oil, and grapeseed oil are other good options.
Homemade Mayo
Ingredients
- 1 whole large egg
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 cup avocado oil, or other neutral oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Using a large mouth jar or glass (you want something that the immersion blender can just fit into) add the egg, lemon juice and mustard. Test that putting the immersion blender in the ingredients come up to the blades (this will ensure it fully emulsifies).1 whole large egg, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
- Remove the blender, add the garlic, salt and pour in the oil. Let the mixture set for 1 minute to slightly combine before blending. Add your immersion blender, and process on high. Once the mixture starts to emulsify, gently tilt the blender to the side and slowly rise to the top to fully blend everything together. This process should take about 1 minute.1 clove garlic, 1 cup avocado oil, ½ teaspoon salt
- Cover and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
- Don’t have an immersion blender? Use a small food processor or a food processor that has a small bowl insert. If the egg, lemon juice, and mustard do not reach the blades before adding the oil, double the recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How to Make Homemade Mayonnaise
I make this homemade mayo using my immersion blender. It’s super quick and so easy.
- Combine the ingredients. First, add an egg, lemon juice, and mustard to a jar or glass with garlic and oil. Let the mixture rest and mingle for a minute.
- Blend. Process the mixture using your immersion blender. The mayo will start to emulsify. As it does, tilt the blender wand and bring it higher in the jar to make sure that everything gets well blended.
- Done! After a minute or so, you’ll have mayonnaise (how easy was that?!). Taste and adjust the seasoning and lemon juice if needed. Then, cover and store your homemade mayo in the fridge, and get spreading.
Recipe Tips & Suggestions
- Use the right glass. The jar you use to make mayo should be wide enough for the immersion blender to fit into, and narrow enough that the ingredients reach the blades. This ensures that the mayo will fully emulsify. If the egg, mustard, and lemon juice fall short of the blender blades, double the recipe. (The more, the mayo-ier?)
- Use room temperature ingredients. This mayo recipe works best when all of the ingredients are at the same temperature. Take your eggs out of the fridge ahead of time, or you can submerge cold eggs in lukewarm (not hot) water for a couple of minutes to speed things up.
- Variations. Use Roasted Garlic to make more of a Garlic Aioli. Or, add your choice of fresh chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme leaves, parsley) or curry powder. You can also add Cajun spice to make a spicy Cajun dipping sauce, or hot sauce, like Sriracha, for homemade spicy mayo.
How Can I Fix Broken Mayonnaise?
So, you’ve blended your mayonnaise, when all of a sudden it looks curdled and split, and not creamy at all. Before you panic: it’s likely fixable! Broken mayo is a rare worst-case scenario with this recipe, but your mayo isn’t a total write-off if it happens.
- Use mustard. Start with about a teaspoon of mustard in a separate bowl. Gradually beat the broken mayo into the mustard, a little at a time. Since mustard acts as an emulsifier, you should start to see your mayo turn creamy again.
- Use an egg yolk. Add an egg yolk (only the yolk) to a bowl. Following the same instructions as the mustard, whisk the broken mayonnaise into the yolk a small amount at a time until the texture is creamy.
Eggs are an essential ingredient in mayonnaise. Most risks associated with using raw eggs are low, but if you’re concerned, buy pasteurized eggs, and eggs that have been refrigerated. Don’t use dirty eggs, or eggs that show signs of cracks or damage. The CDC offers more guidance on reducing the risks of using eggs
Yes, you can use olive oil. However, keep in mind that using a strongly flavored extra virgin olive oil will impart that flavor to your mayo. If you’d like to use olive oil, I recommend using a blended oil (ie, olive oil mixed with another vegetable oil), or replacing only half of the neutral-flavored oil with a light, fruitier olive oil that has a milder taste
If your mayonnaise breaks or refuses to thicken, all is not lost. See my tips above on how to fix mayo that’s broken or runny, and give those a try.
As a general rule, homemade mayo lasts as long as the eggs would last. Properly stored, this recipe will keep in the fridge for up to 1-2 weeks depending on how fresh your eggs are. You’ll find more details on storage below.
Mayonnaise is an emulsion, meaning it combines ingredients that wouldn’t normally mix into a rich and creamy sauce. Freezing and thawing causes the emulsion to break, and the texture just isn’t the same after. I’ll always recommend making a fresh batch whenever possible. Luckily, all it takes is a few minutes!
Ways to Use Homemade Mayonnaise
You can’t go wrong spreading it over a turkey club sandwich or a crispy chicken sandwich. But there are plenty of ways to use mayonnaise that goes beyond sandwiches, too! Try these ideas:
- Salads – Fresh homemade mayo makes classic egg salad and potato salad taste even better! You can also use it in recipes like this Southwest chicken salad and coleslaw.
- Dressings – Use this mayo in homemade ranch dressing, this easy Thousand Island dressing, or a creamy avocado dressing to drizzle over salads.
- Dips – I love using homemade mayo in my hot crab dip or this Game Day-favorite Reuben dip.
- More Ideas – Use this mayonnaise to make crispy shrimp cakes or homemade crab puffs.
Storage
Keep your homemade mayonnaise covered tightly in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Note that your mayo may not last quite as long if your eggs aren’t super fresh to start with.
I love how rich this mayo is. You just cannot beat homemade. Love this stuff.
We love this recipe – it is our “go-to” – we don’t buy mayo anymore.
So glad I found this recipe! Now I can always make fresh homemade mayo so easy! Thanks for sharing!
Wow! This was totally fool proof!!!!
I never thought making my own mayo could be so simple and rewarding! Following your recipe resulted the creamiest, most flavorful mayonnaise I’ve ever tasted.