My Mayonnaise Confession

If you’ve ever visited the About Me tab, you may recall I drew a particular line in the sand many years ago: at least I would never have to make my own mayonnaise. Well, I have now. In fact, I do on a regular basis. The only mayonnaise the kids eat is mayonnaise I make myself.

I have a big confession to make.

My kids don’t eat the majority of what’s on this website. Haven’t for years, in fact. Because while being GFCF helped us vitally, tremendously, immensely, I have always said that I would stop at nothing short of full recovery. And the fact is, GFCF wasn’t enough.

We transitioned onto the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in early 2011, which you can learn about here if you’re interested. My kids are still most definitely gluten- and dairy-free, but they are also free from all grains, all starches, and all sugars except pure honey and those found naturally in fruit.

If this is your first time to the site, and you’re still overwhelmed by even the idea of going GFCF, ignore everything I’m saying right now. Take it one step at a time; don’t give up on the small goal now just because there might someday be a larger goal ahead of you. But if you’ve been GFCF for awhile, and aren’t seeing the level of improvement you were hoping for, maybe spend a little time on that SCD website. It was the answer for us, and it might be for you too.

 

All that being said, there’s no such thing as a commercial mayonnaise that is SCD-legal, so I had to finally take that step I had been refusing from the beginning, and learn to make it myself.

Oh my goodness, y’all, it’s so easy. Takes under a minute.

 

Start with one egg. Little known fact: if you are allergic to eggs, as my daughter is, there is a very good chance that you can actually tolerate duck eggs just fine. It’s a completely different protein, as far as your immune system is concerned. Check around your local farmers’ markets, or even Craigslist. That’s where I found the lady I buy most of mine from. I can’t begin to tell you how awesome it was to finally be able to make baked goods with eggs again.

 

Next add 3/8 tsp of salt…

 

…and 1/2 tsp ground mustard. Yeah, there’s mustard in mayonnaise, crazy right?

 

Finally, add 1/2 Tablespoon of lemon juice. Here’s an example of something I have to prepare myself on SCD instead of just buying one of those yellow bottles with the oddly long neck. But it’s not a big deal. I squeeze half a dozen lemons all at once, and save the juice in a little container in the fridge for whenever I need it. If it’s been awhile and I’m not using it fast enough, I can just dilute whatever’s left with some water, add honey… and voila! Lemonade to drink.

 

Now, measure out 1 cup of sunflower oil. You can use canola or even safflower if you prefer, but the oil is going to contribute a surprising amount of flavor to the final product, so you want something extremely mild. Definitely not olive oil. You will gag.

 

Pour in just a little of the oil, and set it back down for now. I like to put it on a plate like you saw above, because I always get those little drips over the edge. Blend the egg and oil for a few seconds until it’s incorporated.

 

Then just repeat the process: pour a little more, blend a little more. Never pour in more than 1/4 cup at a time, max. You can do this in a real blender instead of with an immersion blender like I have, but you have to be careful. A real blender will generate more heat next to the blade, and you might overcook the egg. You’ll know this happened if your mixture suddenly separates into a watery, chunky mess. Once you’ve crossed that line, it’s ruined; you can’t un-cook it. So make sure you pulse the blender on and off only for a few brief seconds at a time, if you go that route.

 

By the time the last of the oil’s in, it will be almost too thick to blend. Ta da! You just made mayonnaise. Not so scary after all.

 

Happy Eating!

 

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 egg
3/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 TBS lemon juice
1 cup sunflower oil