Broken Mayo
Your homemade mayonnaise has split into a greasy, curdled mess. Here's how to re-emulsify it into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Part of sauces cooking fixes and lumpy food fixes .
Ingredients on hand
- broken mayo
- egg yolk
- lemon juice
- Dijon mustard
Why it happened
Mayonnaise is an oil-in-water emulsion stabilized by lecithin in egg yolk. It breaks when oil is added too fast (overloading the lecithin's capacity to coat droplets), when ingredients are too cold (lecithin works best at room temperature), or when the ratio tips past about 3/4 cup oil per yolk. A fresh yolk provides new lecithin to re-emulsify the broken sauce. Adding the broken mayo slowly lets each droplet get properly coated.
The fix
- 1Place 1 fresh egg yolk and 1 teaspoon lemon juice in a clean bowl and whisk until combined
- 2Very slowly drizzle the broken mayo into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly -- start with drops, then a thin stream
- 3Once it comes together and thickens, whisk in 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard for stability and flavor
If it's still wrong
- Add 1 tablespoon warm water to the broken mayo and blend with an immersion blender for 30 seconds.
- Start with 1 teaspoon Dijon in a fresh bowl and whisk the broken mayo in slowly -- mustard contains natural emulsifiers (mucilage).
Prevent next time
- Use room-temperature eggs and add oil in a hair-thin stream, especially for the first 1/4 cup.
- Add 1 teaspoon mustard to the initial yolk mixture for extra emulsion insurance.
Notes
Why this works
Mayonnaise is a remarkably stable emulsion when made correctly — a single yolk can emulsify up to 3/4 cup of oil. The magic ingredient is lecithin, a phospholipid in egg yolk with one water-loving and one fat-loving end. It sits at the interface of each tiny oil droplet, preventing them from merging. When mayo breaks, those droplets have coalesced back into pools of free oil. A fresh yolk provides a new supply of lecithin. By adding the broken mayo slowly, you’re essentially making a new batch of mayo using the broken one as your oil source. Each addition gets properly coated with lecithin before you add more. Mustard is an excellent secondary emulsifier because its ground seed particles are naturally amphiphilic and wedge between oil droplets.
Substitutions
- egg yolk→1 tablespoon aquafaba for egg-free
- lemon juice→white wine vinegar
- Dijon mustard→whole grain mustard
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