Your Immersion Blender Is The Secret To Homemade Mayo In Seconds

A well-made homemade mayonnaise is so tasty that once you've tried it you might question how commercial mayonnaises can claim to be the same thing. Rich and creamy, with balanced salt and acidity, it's the classic condiment with uses from basting meat for grilling to baking cakes (with better results than you might expect!). 

If you've ever tried making homemade mayonnaise, you'll know the process can be as tricky as the results are rewarding. One kitchen tool, however, can change your mayo-making game forever: the immersion blender. Also known as stick blenders or hand blenders, using a tall container, you simply submerge their blades into whatever you want to blend. They're a versatile kitchen tool for many preparations but are especially good at making thick, creamy mayonnaise with far less effort than any other method.

However you make mayonnaise, the process involves adding oil to egg, acid, and mustard in small, steady amounts, otherwise it won't bind and you're left with a watery egg and oil mix. The magic of using an immersion blender is that you can blend all the oil with the other ingredients in one go. It's essential to add everything except the oil first, then add the oil on top. Also, only turn on the blender once the blade end is touching the container's base. Otherwise, you risk exposing too much oil to the non-oil ingredients at once, preventing emulsification.

There are multiple ways to make mayo, but most have their drawbacks. There are traditional approaches — by hand with a whisk, or using a pestle and mortar — but these take time, elbow grease, and a juggler's dexterity to drizzle oil and whisk simultaneously. Standard countertop blenders and food processors make mayo with less effort, but they're not exactly hassle-free — both need scraping down during the process and can be a hassle to clean.

When making mayo with an immersion blender, the blades get coated in the non-oil ingredients, and their spinning creates a sort of whirlpool, sucking a steady stream of oil downwards into the other ingredients. It's effectively a mechanized version of you whisking your ingredients in a bowl with one hand while streaming oil with the other, except that the whole process takes a fraction of the time that manual whisking usually takes.

Immersion blenders don't just make mayonnaise quickly and easily, they're more reliable than other methods. They make tastier mayo, too: The speed of the whirring blades rapidly creates a highly aerated emulsion that's thick in texture and creamy in mouthfeel. That thick texture can be a great base for adding other ingredients to create limitless flavored variants, from mango chutney mayo to spicy sriracha-lime mayo.

Just because you've found the holy grail for making mayonnaise, it doesn't mean you can cut corners on the ingredients. Mayonnaise needs a balance of fat (oil), water (in the egg and lemon juice), and lecithin (in the egg) to emulsify. The latter coats fat molecules and binds them to the water molecules. If these elements aren't all present, or they're not in an appropriate balance, you won't end up with mayonnaise even with an immersion blender. As a general rule, for one large egg use 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 200ml (about ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon) of oil.  

To ensure the immersion blender method works perfectly, you'll also want to use a container that's just wide enough to fit the blade end with little room around it. This slows the sucking of oil down into the other ingredients making it more like a drizzle, and more likely to bind well. 

Even with an immersion blender, you could end up with a mayo that's too thick. To thin a mayonnaise, you can simply add a little water (or any liquid that's less dense than your mayo) into the container and pump the blender a few times to combine it with your emulsification. On the other hand, if it's too thin, then simply add more oil and blend this into your mayo. Whether your mayo is too runny or too thick, it's pretty easy to adjust the consistency to your liking when using an immersion blender.