Mayonnaise is a condiment that people either really love or really hate. There’s rarely any in-between.
Personally, I mostly fall into the “hate it” category, but it’s also a condiment that is bland enough and has the right texture to make it super useful. I frequently use it, combined with heavy cream or sour cream, to stand-in for “cream of” soups in casseroles. It’s also the most frequent choice of binder in refrigerator-style salads (eg, tuna, egg, or chicken salad, coleslaw, etc. and so on). So, having a good mayo on hand is a must in a well-stocked keto kitchen.
Now, depending on availability in your area (and availability in your budget) you can find a good quality mayo made with avocado or coconut oil in lieu of Frankenfood seed or soy oils, but sometimes it’s easier all-around to just make your own.
As I mentioned, I’m not really a mayo fan, so to make it a lot more palatable (and to give a little extra zip to my concoctions that use it), I turn regular old mayo into “Baconnaise,” also known as bacon mayo. The one food that has the potential to make pretty much everything better is bacon, and in the case of mayonnaise… well, let’s just say it’s not an exception.
Notes: I can whip up my mayo very quickly and easily with my immersion blender, but if you don’t have one, that’s OK! I included alternate instructions for a food processor. Read them through and know that I really mean it when I say to drizzle slowly.
I’m also not kidding when I say to leave your freshly made mayo out on the counter for 1-3 days. There have been lab studies done on this, and the nutshell is that the anti-bacterial power of the acid in the vinegar, hot sauce, and mustard powder is inhibited by the cold, so putting freshly made mayo right into the fridge stops those ingredients from doing their job fighting salmonella. However, the acids will kill the most bacteria by about 72 hours at room temperature, and a respectable amount of it is gone at the 24-hour mark, so it should be safe to eat after a day unless you’re seriously immune-compromised.
So, I’m not nuts on this one. Trust me.
I use light olive oil in my mayonnaise-making, mainly because I don’t care for the stronger flavor the other approved oils lend to the emulsion. If you prefer avocado oil, or another friendly oil, feel free to swap it in.
The last note is that I’ve also included instructions in the notes on how to make just plain, old mayo (it’s as simple as using all the oil of your choice and leaving out the bacon grease).
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PinIngredients
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp mustard powder
- 1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (I use Frank’s Red Hot)
- pepper, to taste, if desired (yes, I know this is weird)
- 1 tbsp. (1/2 fl oz/ 15 ml) apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 c (2 fl oz/ 59 ml) bacon drippings, liquidifed and cooled
- 3/4 c (6 fl oz/ 177 ml) light olive oil (or oil of your choice)
Instructions
- For the immersion blender:
- Crack the egg directly into your blender cup, then add the mustard powder, sea salt, hot sauce, pepper (if desired), and vinegar.
- Pour the oil directly over the egg and seasonings then top it off with the cooled liquid bacon drippings.
- Put the blender “stick” into the cup, all the way down at the bottom.
- Turn it on and hold it at the bottom of the cup until you see the white of the emulsion forming and starting to come towards the surface.
- Very slowly pull upwards on the blender “stick” to incorporate the rest of the oil.
- Once the oil is all incorporated into the mayo, transfer the mayo to a mason jar, put the lid on, and let it stand on the counter for 24-72 hours before refrigerating.
- For the food processor:
- Put the egg and all the seasonings and vinegar into the food processor, and put the lid on.
- Mix the cooled bacon drippings and the oil into a container with a pourable spout. A liquid measuring cup is good for this.
- Turn the food processor on and let it run a few seconds, then very slowly start to drizzle the oil into the food processor through the spout in a steady, but very slow and thin stream. You may need to stop and start the pouring a few times to allow the food processor to catch up. That’s OK.
- Once all the oil is in the processor and it’s all incorporated into the emulsion, turn it off and transfer the mayo to a mason jar. Put the lid on and let it stand on the counter for 24-48 hours before refrigerating.
Notes
Feel free to swap out the light olive oil for avocado oil, coconut oil, regular olive oil, or even MCT oil.
To make regular mayo: Simply replace the 1/4 c bacon drippings with more light olive oil, or an oil of your choosing.
Per 1 tbsp.: 128.1 cal, 0.4 g protein, 14.2 g fat, 0.05 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 0.05 g NET carbs
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tbsp
Keywords: mayonnaise, bacon, bacconaise, basics, easy, sauces
Shelf life? It’s a lot of effort for one cup. How about a half litre batch? I imagine it will last a week?
Shelf life once it’s in the refrigerator is a good week or more. Making this quantity of mayo at home is pretty standard, mainly because without the additional preservatives that they put in store bought stuff, it doesn’t keep as long. You can always scale it up, if you need more in a shorter period of time.
As for the effort, it takes less than a minute once you get the ingredients into the blender cup. It may sounds like a lot of work, but it really is just dumping and blending.
Do you think this would work with all bacon grease? Skipping the olive oil?
I’ve done this, but I would suggest that you only make enough to use in the time period before refrigeration. It taste amazing, but once cooled completely in the fridge, It simply taste like cold bacon grease. You loose all of the other flavors.
I concur with James. All bacon grease is going to be very strong and once you refrigerate it will be solid. I typically don’t recommend subbing bacon grease for more than a quarter of the oil in any mayo recipe for that reason.
How is that safe to leave a raw egg on the counter for up to 72 hours?
It’s explained in the post. The acid in the mayonnaise kills off any bacteria from the egg, but that only happens at room temperature. The cold *inhibits* that process, so it’s less safe to eat if you put it immediately in the fridge. There is a study with the bacterial die off process and all data linked in the post. 72-hours at room temp yielded total bacterial die off.
Easy peasy and so delicious! Thanks, Mandy.
★★★★★