Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard

I am surprised how hard it is to find decent quality mayonnaise here, in States. For a while we were getting away with mayo from the local European store. But for some reason they recently ran out of the brand I liked and stopped carrying it.

So I was left out to make my mayo myself. After all it is also better to know what the mayo you eat is made of, that is: egg yolks, mustard, oil, vinegar, salt and sugar to taste, that is it.

Whatever tools you use for mixing, mayo make sure that mixing part can reach all sides and bottom of the mixing bowl, it is important that the oil is mixed in completely and it should not sit on the sides.

I used hand blender with wire mixing attachment which only has fast speed, so I had to pulse it so it doesn’t overheat (keeping handle vertical helped prevent spilling). I also had to make sure to keep cap from rotating, I would prefer to have 3 hands to make it more elegant: one to hold cap, one to hold blender and one to gradually pour oil in.

Ingredients:

  • 2 big egg yolks
  • About 1 cup of sunflower oil
  • 1 teaspoon of ground mustard
  • 0.5 teaspoon of salt (or more to taste)
  • 0.5 teaspoon of sugar
  • 0.75-1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar (5% acidity)
  • Water to taste, between 1 and 2 tablespoons, boiled and cooled down

How to prepare, step-by-step:

  1. Prepare ingredients: use eggs and other ingredients at room temperature:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 1
  2. Separate egg yolks from whites, put yolks to narrow and tall mixing bowl (tall enough to fit all ingredients and not spill them around while mixing), I used hand blender with wire attachment and its cup for mixing (it was convenient enough, but required some agility to not spill ingredients around while mixing):
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 2
  3. Add all salt, sugar and mustard to the same mixing bowl:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 3
  4. Next part is quite important for successful outcome, make sure you add oil very slowly on the beginning and mix everything good before adding next portion:
    Mix yolks, sugar, salt and mustard
    Add a drop of oil and emulsify
    Add few more drops, mix in completely

    Make sure to emulsify oil completely before adding more
    When mix starts thickening it is safe to start adding more oil at once
    Stop after you’ve mixed in about half of all the oil


  5. Add vinegar, if you use vinegar with other acidity than 5% you may need to adjust amount of it as well as amount of water:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 5
  6. Mix it well:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 6
  7. Then gradually mix remaining of the oil, if you use hand blender which has only fast speed (like I did) pulse it, don’t run it all the time on high speed – mixture becomes thicker and mixing it on constant high speed with wire attachment may be a bit too heavy for a hand blender:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 7
  8. Now add cold boiled water to gain consistency of the mayo you like (and reduce acidity if needed):
    Add boiled water
    Mix it good
    Add more salt if you feel like


  9. Mayonnaise is ready:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 9
  10. Serve it as sauce, use as base for other sauces, salad dressing and so on:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 10
  11. Homemade mayonnaise can be stored in the fridge in airtight jar for a few days:
    Homemade Mayo with Egg Yolks and Mustard Recipe: Step 11
Enjoy!

View Comments

  • Fast and easy! Julia, would it be ok to use olive oil instead of the sunflower oil? I think rice vinegar has even less acidity than white wine, do you think it would be slightly better to use that one instead? I think the flavors are slightly different.

    • Sunflower oil is the one I am used to cook with mostly, so it is hard for me to predict what the outcome would be. Olive oil may add a bit of bitterness to the taste (but I think that may depend on the quality of the oil in a first place).

      The same goes for rice vingar, I think you can try it (some ppl also use lemon juice instead of vinegar), it for sure will change the taste, but who knows, maybe you will like it :)

      • Thanks Julia. I actually just made this with olive oil and rice vinegar and your instructions were spot on! I loved it, I don't think I'll ever buy store mayo again. So the olive oil was good flavor wise, I'd be interested to try it with sunflower oil, but I never have it on hand. The rice vinegar didn't have enough of a kick so I doubled the portion, I have a feeling that the white wine vinegar would be better here, rice wine is a little too mild. I also added agave instead of sugar and it worked out very well, no crunch. Thanks again, what a great recipe!