Dipping into the Mayo

Lacto-Fermented Mayo

We tried several lacto-fermented mayonnaise recipes to see which we preferred and whether or not they would pass as a substitution. The short answer is no. So this project gets tabled until we can find a better solution. If you’re curious, read on for the full story...


First we tried Real Mayo from the Healthy Home Economist. She uses a whole egg and one egg yolk, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, whey and salt. Some tasters liked the lemon juice rather than vinegar in some other recipes. Most of us; however, preferred the recipes with 3 egg yolks. She gives an option for sunflower oil or olive oil. We used a very good quality olive oil with less flavor but it still carried a definite olive oil flavor.

Next was a mayo from Erin at Gnowfglins. She uses 3 yolks and raw apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, whey, olive oil and salt. Again, we liked the 3 yolks. Some tasters preferred the vinegar but others thought it was too strong. This batch emulsified the very best. The texture was great.


The third recipe was from Kelly the Kitchen Kop. It had 3 yolks and gave you an option for lemon juice or vinegar. This one adds a bit of sugar and salt and uses sesame oil. For our purposes it seems a bit of a compromise but, honestly, since we weren’t happy with either of the olive oil concoctions, we thought it was worth a try. By this time, the blender was heating up because of the slow oil drizzle from the previous batches so this didn’t emulsify very well. We decided that it was the blender’s fault, not the oil because we did another batch of olive oil mayo with different blends and it didn’t emulsify either. As soon as we changed from the blender to the food processor, the same olive oil recipe worked fine. I imagine the sesame dressing would have worked fine if it wasn’t too hot. The only other factor was the lack of mustard in this recipe which also helps to emulsify the blend. However, again, the next batch of olive oil mayo didn’t have mustard either and it emulsified just fine.

Next on the list was an purely an experimental recipe with 3 yolks, 2 t raw apple cider vinegar and 2 t lemon juice, salt, 1 T whey and 1 cup olive oil. It was fine. Honestly, it was probably my favorite but I use favorite very loosely. I really didn’t like any of them.

Last was the same as above but with sunflower oil instead as some recipes suggested. The sunflower oil was fine – a little strong. But again, everything was unpleasant and strong.

Then the Food Snob came. She is the woman in the group that can taste every part of every food, the master at recreating recipes after going out to eat, the one with the most refined and sensitive palate. She is also the youngest. We sat down after the group meeting and dissected the mayo problem. Her conclusion was that there was always too strong of an oil flavor or scent regardless of the oil we used. Her favorites; however were the sesame and sunflower. She was afraid that the two stronger scents would compete. She came up with a recipe that we will try when we get together next based on her taste testing. It is 3 yolks, 2 T rice vinegar (feeling like the raw apple cider departed too strong a flavor), 1 T lemon juice, 1 T whey, ½ t dijon mustard, 1 t sugar and ¼ cup sunflower and ¼ cup sesame. If we needed more oil to emulsify it, we would try more sesame. We will update.

After more reading, I’d like to try Mary Enig’s blend of 1/3 olive, 1/3 sesame and 1/3 coconut oil. I also read somewhere that adding vinegar at the end lightens the color. The Chef said that made sense from her culinary background. I also want to try using some leaf lard because of the lack of flavor. Both of those options need ingredients I don’t have coconut oil or lard. I have to find a pig butcher and render some first. It may be a while.

Dutifully Yours,
The Chemist