How to Make Store-Bought Mayonnaise Delicious Homemade
If you make your own mayonnaise, you know you can go out of your way to experiment with vinegar and different fats. Duck fat mayonnaise, for example, will change your sandwich game. Even something as simple as replacing egg yolks with whole eggs can change the flavor and texture of your spread. But while I love tweaking and fiddling with homemade recipes, I always have a jar of store-bought mayonnaise in the fridge. While mayonnaise doesn’t taste the same out of a can, mass-produced mayonnaise has a much longer shelf life than homemade mayonnaise, and it’s so convenient. I don’t just spread it on my sandwiches, I cook with it. Last Thursday night I used it as the base for a chicken thigh marinade.
I started by squeezing half a lemon into about 3/4 cup of mayonnaise. I whipped it until smooth, I tried it and I thought, “Damn. It’s tasty. Maybe I should make a sandwich instead. But I continued with my original plan, tweaking the marinade to taste with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and sugar. The result was a very fragrant, whimsical mayonnaise that worked incredibly well as a marinade, but could have made an equally impressive tuna salad. “Why don’t I change all the store-bought mayonnaise like this?” I asked myself. Why not.
Mayo is an almost perfect blank slate for experimentation. Here are a few ways to add zest and sophistication to boring, store-bought cans of my favorite sandwich.
Whipping butter in fancy pants
Just a dab of extra-virgin olive oil with pepper or walnut-pistachio oil can add depth and flavor to your mass-produced mayonnaise, making it taste much more expensive than it really is. Add little by little, beating after each addition, until the taste is luxurious.
Add some minced garlic
Aioli – no, as some menus will lead you to incredibly trendy mayonnaise. Real aioli is nothing more than a mixture of oil and garlic . (Technically, garlic-flavored mayonnaise would be aioli, but not all aioli are mayonnaise.)
However, you can give Jane’s Plain Mayonnaise an aioli flavor by crushing a clove of fresh garlic and mixing it into the seasoning. Be warned: we love garlic’s ability to mask some of the more “commercial” flavors of store-bought mayonnaise, but it helps a bit. Start with 1/2 chopped cloves per cup of mayonnaise, cover, let dissolve for half an hour, then add more if needed.
Add acid
A tart, invigorating acid, whether it’s vinegar or lemon juice, is what keeps mayonnaise from getting disgusted. Take it out of the recipe and you’re left with a sticky bowl of white stuff. Both lemon and apple cider vinegar can give a more rustic flavor to the condiment, as they taste more like ingredients found in the kitchen rather than in a factory. Start with them and then move on to more interesting and exciting acids. (I was thinking about trying raspberry vinegar. Just for fun.) Splash and whisk to taste.
Squeeze some mustard
Almost all homemade mayonnaise has some mustard in it, and it’s a good idea to add some mustard to store-bought brands as well. The slime helps emulsify the other ingredients, and the pungency of the mustard seeds can hide any synthetic flavors you might not like, as well as add two of my favorite things: depth and nuance.
Take a cue from your favorite fashion brands
Kewpie, Duke’s and other select brands are loved by legions of fans for their unique taste, but they are not available in all regions of the country. However, we can look up their ingredient lists online and learn from them. Duke’s, for example, has no added sugar and uses a combination of white and apple cider vinegar, so consider sprinkling your regular mayonnaise with a small amount of each to tone down the sweetness and recreate its signature scent.
Kewpie – an egg yolk-only mayonnaise – is acidified with a mixture of red wine and rice vinegar and contains some yeast extract (MSG). You can’t take the egg whites out of the finished mayonnaise, but you can add the appropriate vinegars and monosodium glutamate to it to give your Hellman’s a Kewpie vibe. (Speaking as someone who has a Kewpie T-shirt, I think it’s a good mood.)