Make Your Own Mayo
14. Feb, 2010 
28 Comments
On the Paleo diet, you have to be really careful with any sort of condiments or dips. Mustard is generally safe, but many others contain sugar and/or questionable oils.
When TLSP took on “strict paleo” back in November, I spent a good deal of time reading mayonnaise labels at every grocery store I stopped in. I will save you the trouble of doing the same: Paleo mayo does not come in a jar. Most storebought mayo is made from a base of either soybean oil or canola oil, and nearly all varieties contain either sugar, cane juice, or HFCS.
Fortunately, you do not have to give up mayo altogether. Homemade mayo is simple, quick, and a great source of healthy fat. Here is the basic recipe I have been using:
Paleo Mayo
- 1 pastured egg (works best if egg is allowed to come to room temperature)
- 1/2 tsp mustard powder
- 1 tsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed works best)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup walnut oil (or another nut oil, or grapeseed- otherwise the EVOO flavor is very strong!)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Combine egg, mustard powder, and lemon juice in a food processor until it reaches a thick, creamy consistency.
- Slowly blend oil into egg mixture.
- Add salt and pepper as desired.
- Store in a glass jar (perfect way to reuse a jar!) in the fridge. Mayo will thicken over the next few hours.
Variations
- Lemon-Dill: Add lemon zest and a generous amount of fresh dill. This is FANTASTIC with salmon.
- Chipotle: Use chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Add to desired level of spice. Great for dipping baked sweet potato fries.
- Roasted Garlic: Add 1-2 cloves of roasted garlic and freshly ground black pepper.
- Herb: Experiment with your favorite fresh herbs! This is an easy change that will make a world of flavor difference. Two of my favorites are fresh basil leaves and fresh cilantro (NOT together!)
Post to comments if you have a mayo recipe or variation to share!
Author Info
Awesome post! I too had attempted the grocery-store-mayo-label-read debacle and am glad to have an easy way to make my own mayo, and lots of varieties.
Why suggest grapeseed oil? It is currently being promoted like snake oil. But it is not paleo. As I explain in my definition:
http://paleodiet.com/definition.htm
“Fruit seeds are not supposed to be digested, but to pass through and still be viable. They would never have been a food.”
Might I add that when you add the oil, you really want to literally do it drop by drop otherwise it wont emulsify. If you have an oldskool sqeez bottle it works best.
You can also do it with coco oil. I usually do half evoo and half coco
I just made my own mayo too, although mine is based on macadamia nut oil with coconut or EVOO to split the dominance of flavours. I’m intrigued by the idea of adding mustard powder – though it doesn’t appeal to my palate, I bet the beau would like it.
http://girlgoneprimal.blogspot.com/2010/02/makin-merry-makin-mayo.html
2 questions….how long does it keep and which of the nut oils are mildest and best at cutting the olive taste? I’ll be making this for my son as well and he’s terribly picky.
@Don- Thank you for sharing that. I do prefer the walnut oil/EVOO split so I will stick with that instead of grapeseed.
@nia and @jezwyn- What happens when you refrigerate the mayo made with coconut oil? Does it harden?
@Alcinda- I like walnut oil. You might want to use more of that than the EVOO, the flavor of EVOO is so strong! Since it does have raw egg, I don’t try to keep it any longer than about 2-3 days.
Just found your blog and see you came to the same conclusion I did a long time ago. I have a variation on your recipe, and a tip: Make the mayo in a food processor. The tube at the top should have the tiniest of holes in the bottom, which I believe was put there for the express purpose of dribbling oil at a slow pace.
I use pretty much the same ingredients you do, except all olive oil, a little more lemon juice and one egg plus one egg yolk. I find if I fill the food processor’s tube twice, it’s the right amount of oil. This recipe comes out yellower because of the extra yolk. Hope this is useful!
Fantastic! Tried evoo coconut oil as suggested. Definitely the best homemade mayo I’ve tried.
I found a recipe for baked bacon and then strain the bacon grease and use it to make mayonnaise. Why bother with mono oils when you can have saturated animal fats!
That will be my next experiment!
use (white) vinegar if you’d like a stronger taste then lemon juice provides.
i prefer to use only walnut oil or flaxseed oil when making my mayo, you could also use rendered animal fat or only olive oil personally i want a pure taste n so i’ll choose one fat and use that one in my mayo.
raw egg or not- use clean utensils and keep your fingers away from the mayo it will store for atleast a cuople weeks in the refrigerator and probably several months.
I made some mayo this morning and used light EVOO. I read somewhere that regular gives it a green appearance and strong flavor. The grocery stores I frequent do no have any other kinds of oils that would be considered paleo. Mine was just creamy tasting (forgot to buy dried mustard) so I am going to experiment with flavors next time.
Help! I followed the recipe above and the oil taste is too strong! Any ideas?
I also find Extra Virgin Olive Oil too strong – try a much lighter olive oil, coconut oil or even bacon grease.
GREAT MAYO RECIPE! – Thanks. I love the dill version with Paleo Salmon Patties. I posted a link to this page from my Salmon recipe at http://www.huntgatherlive.com/2010/12/paleo-salmon-patty.html
oh yum!!
Paleo, Primal, doesn’t matter. I tried this mayo recipe, and I don’t think I’ll ever buy mayo again. Delish!!! Thank you!
Lacking mustard powder, would liquid mustard work?
I think it would make the mixture too liquidy… mustard powder is going to work best here.
You were not kidding about the strong taste of EVOO. I just made some here, and boy is it yellow and olive-y.
I wonder if peanut oil would be better?
http://fatstate.com/69/low-carb-mayo-quest-olive-oil/
I should have asked in my previous quote, but what do you think of the recent studies refuting the bad impact of soy?
I was concerned about soy based mayo, which is why I tried to make my own.
I posted about it here:
http://fatstate.com/25/low-carb-mayo/
Soy is one of the “not-allowed” ingredients in the Paleo diet because of its effect on estrogen and it’s status as a “third world protein.” Eat meat.
I find the best combo to be 1/2 high oleic safflower or high oleic sunflower oil. Unlike “regular” safflower and sunflower oils, they are mostly monounsaturated. Spectrum has both. The high oleic sunflower oil is 11g monounsaturated, 1.5g PUFA and 1g SFA. The high oleic safflower has 2g PUFA instead of 1.5g. The monounsaturated is the same as is the SFA.
For the other 1/2 of the oil, I use expeller pressed, refined coconut oil. I avoid using nut and seed oils (aside from the ones listed above) due to the high PUFA content (and the high linoleic acid content specifically). Macadamia oil is high monounsaturated (same as the high oleic safflower/sunflower) but it has a pretty strong taste for mayo and my kids won’t eat it.