Stick blender Mayonnaise – Salad dressings No. 2

I promised some more salad dressings when I wrote the Vinaigrette recipe the other day. I really looked forward to doing this post because mayonnaise this way is so simple and so spectacular. You’ll have great mayo in less than a minute. I hope once you have made this the first time, you will not feel the need to buy mayo ever again.

What’s more, it gave me an excuse to make a food-related video to show you how easy it all is. So it was lucky I needed some mayonnaise yesterday. It was to make into a wild garlic mayonnaise to go with some juicy prawns grilled with breadcrumbs and parmesan. I’m afraid there’s no picture of the finished dish because we ate it!

If you want to know how make this, wild garlic mayonnaise or tartar sauce, please read on…

For people who keep chickens, mayonnaise is a really good way of using fresh eggs. In fact, fresher eggs mean better mayonnaise. Fresh eggs contain more of the natural stabiliser lecithin, so you are more likely to get better results. Of course, if you’re in a group that are told they should avoid raw eggs (pregnant, the very young or frail) then think about doing so.

Your major choice with mayonnaise is which oil to use. Your choice will affect the finished taste of the mayonnaise and its expense. I use a mix of extra virgin olive oil and a neutral sunflower or olive oil. This gives a rounded flavour and keeps the cost down.

Your ingredients are best if they are at a cool to moderate room temperature. If you’ve been baking all day and the kitchen feels like an oven, you will find it
harder to make the mayonnaise.

Here’s the video which shows how simple this is:

Mayonnaise with a stick blender recipe

Ingredients

1 medium egg
A large pinch of sea salt
White or freshly ground black pepper (Optional: use white if you don’t want flecks in the finished mayo)
1tsp or more Dijon mustard
About 300ml oil (I use 50/50 sunflower oil & extra virgin olive oil)
1 tsp white wine vinegar, or to taste (flavoured vinegars can be nice here) or you can use the juice of a lemon

Method

Put all the ingredients in a blender goblet, jug or the bowl of your food processor.

Allow the egg to settle to the bottom. Put your stick blender to the bottom of the container and turn on. After a while, you will see the egg & some of the oil emulsify and turn white. Make sure that this is complete before gradually lifting the blender up (and down) through the mix to incorporate the rest of the oil. This will take about a minute in total. Make sure that you have incorporated everything and check your seasoning.

Update 12th March: I’ve been asked on Twitter how long this will store. If you use very fresh eggs (safest and these work best anyway) this should easily keep for 5 days in the fridge. If the quantity is too much for you to use, then you can scale down the ingredients to suit. It’s important that you use complete egg as the egg whites help buffer the mix against the speed & heat of the blades which may otherwise make the emulsion split. So if you want to scale down by half, beat an egg and then add half. A precise amount doesn’t matter, you could use the whole egg with no problem.

Wild garlic mayonnaise recipe

To make wild garlic mayonnaise, take a small handful of wild garlic leaves and chop them very coarsely. Pop these into the bottom of the blender goblet before everything else and puree. Then continue as above.  Alternatively, add the chopped leaves at the end and blend through the mayyonnaise quickly. Don’t over-process or you may split the mayo.

Tartar sauce recipe

This is the classic fish accompaniment.

Ingredients

200ml mayonnaise
3 tbsp each of chopped capers, gherkins and parsley
1 shallot, finely chopped or small bunch chives, finely chopped
Lemon juice to taste

Method

Mix all the ingredients together and chill.

Other posts you may like:

This post is part of the 52 Week Salad Challenge. To find out more, click the picture.

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Comments

20 responses to “Stick blender Mayonnaise – Salad dressings No. 2”

  1. mitchdåfish (@mitchdafish) Avatar

    We just had a greast time making and eating this, only had wholegrain mustard which worked well. Thanks!

  2. Ervin Avatar
    Ervin

    Fresh mayo, will last about 7 -10 days in the fridge, however if you add 1 tbsp. of whey it will last 1 – 2 months, amazing. After making the mayo allow it to remain at room temperature for 7 hours then refrigerate. The whey is added along with all the other ingredients in the beginning.

    1. Carl Avatar
      Carl

      Ervin, I should have thought of that myself! Thanks so much for pointing that out – I make my own cheese & kefir and have plenty of whey around.

      For others, the lactic acid in the whey will create an environment hostile to bacteria. It’s the reason why your fermented pickles & krauts keep. The 7 hours rest gives the whey a chance to do some more work in the mayo before going into the fridge 🙂

      Once again – very many thanks Ervin 😀

  3. […] love this vinegar used in vinaigrettes, mayonnaise , partnered with all kinds of green beans, fish and […]

  4. […] had seen Carl Legge talking about making mayonnaise with his stick blender, and thought hollandaise was probably similar. A quick request on Twitter, and I was assured it was […]

  5. Lynds Avatar
    Lynds

    Fab recipe, so easy to do-thanks for this 🙂 I made mine with combo of Welsh EV Rapeseed and sunflower, tsp lime juice 🙂 Just fabulous !

    1. Carl Avatar
      Carl

      Hi Lynds, I saw the picture on twitter and it looked really great. And the things you were going to dip in it sounded divine 🙂

  6. Marieke Avatar

    We are going to give this a try this weekend Carl, brilliant!

  7. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    i feel the need to comment on your recipe:
    as a long time “chef” i made my fair share of mayo and there is one golden rule i always lived by – an egg yolk “swallows” only 150ml oil.
    that being said i will try one of these days your recipe and let you know. i suppose the other 150ml your recipe calls for are being taken by the mustard, not so sure though, or maybe by the egg white, as i see now that you are calling for an egg o_O

    is that correct? you are using the whole egg? hmmm

    1. Carl Avatar
      Carl

      Hi Alex
      Thanks for taking the time to comment. This is from Harold McGee in his seminal book McGee on Food & Cooking (2004):

      Though cookbooks often say that the ratio of oil to egg yolk is critical, that one yolk can only emulsify a half-cup or cup of oil, this isn’t true. A single yolk can emulsify a dozen cups or more. What is critical is the the ratio of oil to water: there must be enough of the continuous phase for the growing population of oil droplets to fit into.

      He recommends a ratio of yolks, mustard, acid etc of 1 to 3 of oil. As you can see from the video, it does work.

      You are right, I’m using the whole egg, including the white. The idea is that the white provides a buffer for the emulsion so that the fast and hot action of the blender blades does not split the mayo.

      Thanks for taking the time to comment. I find the science of food fascinating. If you haven’t already got McGee’s book, I highly recommend it to you as a brilliant read.

      1. Alex Avatar
        Alex

        as usual, i commented on your OP way too quick. afterwards I watched the video and it SURE works 🙂
        i do not own the McGee book, i’ll be sure to buy it though, as it seems to me to give a better understanding of the chemistry @ work in the cooking process. id du own, however, the escoffier book, kind of a bible to me, and if you do not own that one i strongly recommend you to :).

        to the matter @ hand: the “surplus” of oil is incorporated by the eggwhite, seeing as how the mayo is an emulsion of oil in water, and not the other way round, as some might be inclined to believe (myself included, in the beginning of my “career”.

        anyway, it is very pleasant for me to discuss cooking stuff with other people, and your quick response was a very pleasant surprise.

        seeing that you have my email addy now i might come to you with some indepth questions about permaculture and the likes, for in my long term plan (+5 y) i will try to be as independent as one can, energy and food alike.

  8. Green Dragonette Avatar

    This must be the fastest mayo making recipe I’ve seen and definitely one to try as I usually just add the oil drip by slow drip…Seeing it made on video was an excellent bonus too!! Many thanks for this.

  9. Ray Avatar

    I’ve always been wary of making mayonnaise but this video looks doable! the wild garlic is coming through…. nice!

  10. gillthepainter Avatar

    How interesting to see your process in a video, Carl.
    I’ve tried before and failed, but haven’t added the ingredients to the beaker in a oner.

    I make my mayonnaise with grapeseed oil, by the way.

    1. Carl Avatar
      Carl

      Hi Gill. The egg yolk does the thickening and provides the means to emulsify the oil. The egg white provides a bufffer so that the fast & hot blades don’t seperate out the ingredients. Because of the speed/energy involved, you can do all in one with no problem. Grapeseed and rapeseed oil all good. It’s a foible of mine that I like the oomph of some extra virgin in the mayo.

      Thanks for commenting 🙂

  11. VP Avatar

    Seeing @ediblethings has announced the wild ransoms are through, I know what I’m going to make next.

    I’m also thinking good thoughts about making tartare sauce using some of my nasturtium capers 🙂

    Quick question – it looks like this makes quite a lot of mayo especially as there’s just 2 of us here. How to store and how long for?

    1. Carl Avatar
      Carl

      Michelle, great idea with the nasturtium capers. I have some I made last year I will try in tartar sauce. I think you could get 4-5 days with a fresh egg mayo in the fridge. Our eggs are just out of the chicken, so check which ones you use. Otherwise halve the quantities. You must use a beaten egg as the white in the egg buffers the mix from the fast action/heat of the blender. Just using a yolk for example may not work. Thanks for popping by 🙂

      1. Ray Avatar

        Hi Carl, I had a go today using half quantities and it worked just fine. I used a cold pressed Yorkshire rapeseed oil which has a deep yellow colour and tastes lovely. I wish I had some asparagus to dip in but will be happy with the purple sprouting broccoli from the veg box. Cheers for sharing this Carl. You make a simple video in the comfort of your own kitchen and it has ripples across the world…

  12. Karen Avatar

    This is EXACTLY how I make my mayo Carl and with your permission, can I add a link from my post to yours? As I was not clever enough to do a video! This is a GREAT post the video is brilliant…….as always!
    Karen

    1. Carl Avatar
      Carl

      Karen, thanks very much and of course you can add a link. I would be honoured if you did 🙂