Basic Mayonnaise
Serves 12 Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 5 Steps 9
Mayonnaise is notoriously difficult for the beginner, as it often curdles, but easy once you have the knack.
Ingredients
- 2 egg yolks
- 2½ teaspoons (12.5 mL) lemon juice and/or vinegar
- ½ teaspoons (2.5 mL) Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoons (1 mL) salt
- ¾ cup (180 mL) oil
Steps
- Beat egg yolk with wire whisk in large bowl, about 1 min.
- Add mustard, salt and half the lemon juice. Whisk 1 min until slightly thickened.
- Add half the oil very slowly, whisking constantly.
- Start drop by drop, incorporating each before the next. Build up to a trickle.
- Continue until oil is whisked in.
- Add rest of lemon juice. Whisk to combine.
- Add rest of oil the same way.
- Continue until all oil is whisked in.
- Stir in flavourings such as crushed garlic, if desired.
Notes from the original
- One can make the whisking process easier by using a kitchen towel. Wet a kitchen towel, or any small towel, until it is very wet and heavy, but not dripping. Coil the towel on top of a flat surface, such as the kitchen countertop or a table. Place the bowl onto the circle. This will provide a steady base for the bowl and allow you to whisk with one hand while adding ingredients with the other.
- If the mayonnaise curdles, it can be recovered by slowly dribbling the curdled mayonnaise into another egg yolk while whisking vigorously the whole time.
- ½ teaspoon white sugar can be added with the salt at the beginning for those with a sweet tooth.
- It's easier to just use an immersion blender for the whisking.
- For special occasion, you can spice up this recipe by making Juanz mayonnaise: Just add about a handful of finely chopped cilantro and about half a tooth of crushed garlic. This is also known as banana's mayonnaise.
- Fry sauce is 2 parts of mayonnaise mixed with 1 part of tomato ketchup. It goes well with fries.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Basic Mayonnaise” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-01-24, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.