Faster than Maggi — Mayonnaise in 30 seconds!

Fresh homemade Mayonnaise. Picture by Omkar Hande

Mayonnaise is one of the simplest things you can make at home. I bet you will not be able to find anything that can be made faster! Not only will you be saving money by doing this, but you will also be consuming freshly made, preservative-free Mayonnaise, which you can flavor the way you like!

It takes 30 seconds to make Mayonnaise

It has 4 ingredients

1. Egg
2. Oil
3. Salt
4. Lemon juice

Everything else is optional.

Before you begin, make sure you have a hand blender or a whisk. The blender, preferably of this kind:

With hand blender — The faster, the better

It takes 30 seconds to make Mayonnaise with a blender. Let’s get straight to it:

1. Take a large cup or bowl. Cup is better for preventing spillage and for storage.
2. Pour 1 cup of edible oil in this (approx 180 ml). Use a neutral oil — do not go for olive, mustard, peanut or ay strongly flavored oil.
3. Break 1 whole egg into the cup
4. Add 1 tsp of salt and a few drops of lemon juice. Note that lemon juice is not for taste, it is to keep the Mayonnaise stable (colloidal state)
5. Blend at high speed for 30 seconds. Many recipes say that you need to go slow — well that’s not true. With a blender, you can go as fast as you like. If your blender cannot go very fast, it may take a minute or two for the same.

With Whisk — It’s all about that bicep

If you are using a whisk, get ready for 5 min arm workout 😃!

The method remains the same, except, we will add oil 1tsp at a time instead of all at once. You need to keep whisking vigorously and add a tsp of oil every 30 seconds or so. You will start seeing eggs getting thicker in a few minutes and eventually in about 5 min you should have Mayonnaise. It all depends on your arm strength!

Done. Our basic mayonnaise is ready. You can use this for up to 2 days with refrigeration.

Let’s do the math — 180 ml of edible oil will cost you about Rs. 18, and egg about Rs. 7. We can ignore the cost of lemon drops and salt here. So you have it. 1 cup of Mayonnaise (approx 200ml) for less than Rs. 25.

If you want to experiment further, here are some suggestions:

Flavoring

Traditionally, dijon mustard paste is added to Mayonnaise for the classic flavor. It is not so easily available in India. I never have seen it in any regular store. If you ask me, I am ok with the taste of Mayonnaise without the mustard, just as described above. You can definitely skip it.

You can get experimentative here and come up with many different dressings on your own, using Mayonnaise as the base. Here are a few of my favorites:

Mint Mayonnaise

If you have a green chutney leftover, just mix it directly into the Mayonnaise. Or you can create some fresh chutney with equal parts of coriander and mint leaves along with salt and lemon. You can use mint mayonnaise at places where you’d use mint chutney — like kebabs or other starters.

Tandoori Mayonnaise

Mix Tandoori chicken powder, minced garlic and lime juice to make Tandoori Mayonnaise. This goes well with non-spicy starters like potato wedges. If you don’t have Tandoori masala — just add coriander, cumin, red chili, and garam masala powder.

Garlic Mayonnaise

Take 1 garlic pod (minced) per 1 tbsp of Mayonnaise and mix. You can add a little bit of garlic powder as well for stronger flavor and smell of garlic.

Thousand Island Dressing

Tomato Ketchup and Mayo — that’s the basic mix for Thousand Island. Mix these in equal proportions — although I’d use more Mayo to keep it less sweet. To this, you can add minced garlic, finely chopped onions, lemon juice, and chili sauce. If you have access to Tobasco sauce and sweet pickle relish, add them as well. Don’t use chili sauce if you have Tobasco.

NERD ALERT! Science behind Mayonnaise

Making Mayonnaise feels no less than a science experiment. Mayonnaise is a type of heterogeneous mixture called an Emulsion. Emulsions are types of Colloids that involve two immiscible liquids, ie., they cannot mix with each other — like water and oil. Emulsions are mixtures in which, tiny particles of one liquid are suspended in another liquid. These particles are bigger than molecules but very small for the eye to see. You would not be able to separate them with a sieve either. The process of forming emulsions — Emulsifying, can happen only in the presence of an Emulsifier. In the case of Mayonnaise, the yolk of the egg acts as the fat emulsifier. The lemon or the vinegar provides the acidity which helps the emulsifier form this emulsion between egg and oil and prevents them from separating over time.

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