You may find there are many different recipes for homemade mayo. For ease of use people typically use a blender, food processor or some type of tool however I’m going to show you how to make Paleo mayo without a blender. Aside from how it’s made, the most basic recipe truly comes down to a single ratio.
The basic recipe for Mayo consists of 20 parts oil: 1 part liquid (plus an egg yolk). That’s it. That’s the basics of it.
If you don’t feel like reading, you can watch the video! Take a wild guess at how many unplanned, inappropriate comments I made while making Paleo mayo! I guess you’ll have to watch and count to find out. :p Plus, guest appearance by Mr. Alpha! He was curious, actually he’s always curious. :)
How to Make Paleo Mayo
I present to you the first ever Paleo Porn Recipe video! (Transcript)
Now what type of oil you use and what you add to it to change the flavor, or shelf life, or consistency – that’s where all the variety comes into play.
I prefer to use extra light olive oil. I’ve tried using extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil and combinations of the like but extra virgin olive oil has too strong of a flavor and same goes for avocado oil. If you enjoy the taste of avocado (and I totally fall into that camp!) then you may enjoy using avocado oil, but for me it was just too much. The equal combination of extra light olive oil and avocado oil takes much longer to create the emulsion and never fully gets that mayo-y consistency while you’re whisking but it does firm up to be quite thick in the fridge.
For perfect consistency and flavor and also for immediate use, before and after refrigeration, I only use extra light olive oil.
How NOT to use mayo in a Recipe
That heading may sound counter productive to publishing this recipe for Paleo Mayo but mayonnaise is not really a necessary condiment so I wanted to quickly address that point. There are other real foods that can be used in place of mayo if you’re looking for that creamy texture.
Since Jeff & I removed store-bought mayo from our diet, we’ve never had a real need for it. I used to really enjoy homemade Thousand Island dressing, which is created by using a combination of mayonnaise and ketchup, but when we stopped buying ketchup and mayo, I didn’t really miss the creamy dressings all that much. Plus, I realized I didn’t use ketchup and mayo all that often in the first place. Olive oil is all I really need to dress my salads.
Whenever I made tuna salad or something that would require mayo, I would replace it with an avocado and call it a day. A ripe avocado provides the exact same creamy texture as mayonnaise and when you replace an avocado for mayo and combine it together with the ingredients in your tuna salad recipe, you also add quite a healthy dose of fat.
But for those few times when I felt I wanted mayonnaise, I would turn to Melissa Joulwan’s video and my kitchen would become a disaster. The first time I used the blender to make Paleo mayo I got it on the cabinets, in my hair and all over the counter. The lowest setting on my blender just wasn’t low enough, or I didn’t take the proper amount of care to stir and cover the hole while it was processing.
Needless to say I was put off by making my own mayo because it was so stressful having to watch for splatter and then clean up afterwards! There had to be another way. And there is!
Paleo Mayo Recipe
This very basic Paleo Mayo recipe uses a few simple ingredients, a few basic kitchen items and also builds muscle. You can see what I mean about that last bit in the video above, where I show you exactly what it takes to make Paleo Mayo without a blender. :)
You may have heard me make reference to needing a sweat towel. The history behind that comment comes from our wedding. The day we got married it was supposed to be close to 100 degrees, so we actually had Bride & Groom sweat towels to use on the day of our wedding (and that’s no joke…they actually do exist, and even have our names on them). :) We decided to film this video in our kitchen on a 90 degree summer day. Not sure who’s idea that was, but I needed to stop a few times so there wasn’t any extra salt added to the bowl from my sweat lol
Back to making the mayo…by using a large bowl (with a rubber bottom, if you’ve got it) and a whisk (or fork, although in this case I would definitely choose a whisk), you’ll give your biceps a good workout while whisking away as your emulsion is created and mayo forms right in front of your eyes, with no splatter actually getting in your eyes. ;)
You can use this as your base mayo recipe to create your own varieties and flavors of Paleo mayo or other creamy dressings with whatever you choose to mix in. When you add garlic, you’ve got yourself a Garlic Aioli. Try adding some cayenne pepper or paprika to make it a tad spicy, or turmeric for a yellow tint and flavor boost. Or stir in some bacon for some bacon mayo…mmmm….bacon :p
Paleo Thousand Island Dressing
If you happen to have some Paleo ketchup on hand, mix equal parts mayo and ketchup, add a sprinkle of garlic powder and stir together to make some Paleo Thousand Island Dressing.
Shelf Life of Homemade Mayo
I’m not worried that you’ll find all sorts of ways to use it once it’s made, just be sure to use it all up within a week or so because without preservatives this homemade mayo won’t have an extremely long shelf life, like the store-bought kind.
How Store Bought Mayo is Made
Store bought mayonnaise such as Hellmann’s or Kraft are made using soybean oil or canola oil. Miracle Whip, created as a dressing and now used by some in place of mayonnaise, is made using soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup and modified cornstarch. Low fat mayonnaise products contain starches, cellulose gel, or other thickeners to simulate the texture of real mayonnaise. (Source)
Sadly, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires that anything labeled “mayonnaise” contains a minimum of 65 percent vegetable oil by weight. (Source) If you’re questioning what is included when I say vegetable oil, vegetable oils are oils extracted from plants and seeds such as canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, etc. Wikipedia actually has an impressive list of Vegetable oils, if you want to take a look at them all, and how they’re used.
For an in depth look at the science and history behind vegetable oils read this article by Loren Cordain. For an overall primer with charts, graphs and even recommendations for how to use those vegetable oils you no longer want to consume, read Katie from WellnessMama’s appropriately titled article, Why You Should NEVER Eat Vegetable Oil or Margarine!
AIP Paleo Mayonnaise
I realize some people can’t have eggs and making this basic Paleo Mayo would be quite the task without using the egg yolk. Luckily Mickey Trescott’s The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook has a recipe for AIP Paleo Mayo, although I’m not sure how mayo-y it is or how it tastes, since I’ve not tried it and it’s coconut based, but regardless of whether you can have eggs or not, you too can have homemade Paleo mayo.
One more eggless option
If you’re Vegan and following a Paleo diet, you can try using a flax egg in place of an organic pasture-raised egg. You can read more about flax eggs in this mayo article on the kitchn.
