Homemade mayonnaise: classic recipe, low-calorie variation, and plant-based alternatives – a comprehensive culinary guide
Max Müller
2026-03-25
4 min. read
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This versatile culinary product, originating from French gastronomic tradition, is distinguished by its velvety consistency and richly creamy hue, rendering it an indispensable component that enhances both the flavor and texture of countless dishes. As one of the foundational sauces in European cuisine, mayonnaise serves not only as a standalone accompaniment but also as a base for creating more intricate flavor compositions. Its unique emulsified structure, abundant in lipid components, facilitates the efficient dispersion of aromatic compounds, thereby significantly amplifying the sensory experience when consuming dishes to which it has been added.
Mayonnaise is a composition
Mayonnaise in its basic form consists of raw egg yolks and olive oils with added flavourings (e.g. acetic acid, lemon juice) and flavouring ingredients (salt and white pepper). However, other rules apply to industrial production. Raw egg yellows are replaced by powdered eggs, the oil is replaced by more stable and cheaper oils (i.e. saline oils). As flavoured or functional additives, a proportion of added sugar and mustard ingredients is used, followed by natural acid and/or synthetic preservatives, colours and aromatics.
Mayonnaise light
In order to avoid consuming excess calories, technology has begun to be developed to reduce the fat content of various food products. One of the most frequently modified products in this regard alongside margarine is ice cream and mayonnaise just discussed. An example can be fat substitutes such as polyester sucrose (e.g. Olestra) or tricarboxylic acid esters (TATCA), which resemble fat products in their consistency but can hinder the digestion and absorption of fatty acids.
It's vegan mayonnaise
People who, in addition to the caloric content of mayonnaise, would also like to exclude animal products and cholesterol from it, fortunately have a wide spectrum of products with a modified composition according to vegan dietary principles. The basic ingredient that replaces eggs in Mayonnaise is soybean. Full-fat soy milk is able to replace the flavor that eggs give without simultaneous recognition of products when substituting up to 75% of the concentration of eggs. The flavor, aroma and colour are differentiated only at 50% and higher levels of the egg content.[5] These are the results, as well as the reduction of the organic fat content of soybeans and other fats in our diet.
How do you make mayonnaise?
The base for the preparation of mayonnaise is eggs to which salt is added and to which, depending on the recipe, vinegar, acetic acid or lemon juice is added. These ingredients are mixed with a frequency of about 100 repetitions per minute for about 3 minutes. Then, during the mixing process, oil is gradually added depending upon the recipes from olives, soybeans or salted beans. Then more consistently is recommended 3200 to 6000 repetitions a minute for about 8 minutes.