It is cheaper to make mayonnaise at home, but not a lot. Comparing 30 floz (887 ml) jar of store-bought mayonnaise to the same quantity of homemade revealed that homemade mayonnaise is only 19% cheaper than store-bought. If you buy one 30 floz (887 ml) mayonnaise, you only save 0,91$ if you make it at home from scratch.
Is it cheaper to make mayonnaise at home from scratch? | |||||
Weight store-bought package | Price store-bought | Price homemade from scratch | difference | Homemade cheaper | |
Mayonnaise | 30 floz Jar (887 ml) | $4.89 | $3.98 | $0.91 | 19% |
In general, cooking at home is cheaper than eating out. Check out how to save from 1720$ to 4303$ with homemade food.
Making mayonnaise in ninja blender or by hand wich one is better
Making mayonnaise can be tricky. If you do it by hand, you really need to be careful with how you add the oil. Oil must be added very slowly; otherwise, mayonnaise will not emulsify. If it doesn’t, you can fix this with a teaspoon of boiling water or add another yolk.
Usually, home cooks use the basic ingredient quantities in the recipe and substitute ingredients to get a different taste of mayonnaise. Vegetable oil is replaced with olive oil, avocado oil, or other oils richer in flavor. The substitute for lemon juice can be lime juice and for regular mustard, dijon mustard. With substitutions of ingredients, you can get different varieties of mayonnaise.
If you are making mayonnaise for the first time by hand, there is a high chance that it will separate and not emulsify. The will to do it at home will be gone, and you will end up repurchasing mayonnaise. Using a blender can help a lot.
By using a blender, the chance of mayonnaise not emulsifying is much lower. That is why we recommend you use a blender instead of doing it by hand. If you are wondering about the taste, don’t, because the taste of mayonnaise made by hand or created by the blender is the same.
How to make mayonnaise in ninja blender
Because making mayonnaise by hand can be hard, a lot of home cooks are now using blenders. You still need to be careful when you put in the oil, but the whisking part is taken care of by a speedy blender.
First, put the eggs, oil, and spices into the large blender. The blender should include blades. You need to first blend all these ingredients at high speed.
Now comes the slow part. Incorporate half of the oil into the egg mixture. Oil needs to drip slowly into the mix.
To do this without making a massive mess in the kitchen, ninja users use this little trick. First, drape a dish towel over your pouring hand. Place the tip of a measuring cup with the oil into the spout opening. Fold the spout cover down as far as it will go. Cover everything with the towel, and slowly pour a small stream of oil into the pitcher while blending on dough or crush (low or medium).
When done, turn off the ninja blender, scrape down on the sides, and repeat if there is excess oil on the sides. When you get an emulsified mixture, add in the lemon or lime juice and blend everything quickly. The mixture will be slightly looser after adding lemon juice.
Now add, again slowly, the remaining oil and blend on medium (crush) speed. When making mayo in your blender, it could be a bit runnier than store-bought mayo, but it will thicken when you cool it down in the refrigerator.
How much does it cost to make homemade mayonnaise
Measurement to grams: we calculated the measurement of each ingredient into grams to get the sum weight of ingredients for mayonnaise.
Average product price: for each ingredient, we checked the latest prices online and calculated the average price of ingredients per ounce, which are included in the mayonnaise recipe.
Price per ingredient: the price for each ingredient is calculated to match the amount used in the recipe.
Sum weight of mayonnaise: to get the total weight of mayonnaise, we summed the weight of all ingredients in grams.
Time, utensils, and cookware: We did not include time cost or the purchase of cookware and utensils into the calculation.
Is it worth making homemade mayonnaise
It is not worth making mayonnaise at home if you want to save money. But it is worth it from the taste point of view. Making mayonnaise at home can be tricky. You can use a blender or make it by hand. Homemade mayonnaise is delicate and much richer in taste than store-bought. People are also making it at home because they can choose the ingredients they put in.
To calculate the cost of homemade mayonnaise, we took the basic mayonnaise recipe which home cooks use the most. Making mayonnaise for 12 servings costs 0,87$, which is 0,07$ per serving. The most expensive part of the recipe is oil, especially if you would use instead of vegetable oil, avocado, olive, grapeseed, or peanut oil.
I’ve written a complete “is it cheaper” analysis of the most popular foods cooks make at home.
(BREAD, PIZZA, PASTA, FRIES, BEEF JERKY, LASAGNA, CHEESECAKE, GRANOLA BARS, GLUTEN-FREE BREAD, MAYONNAISE, GNOCCHI, GUACAMOLE, GROUND BEEF, BROWNIES, HUMMUS)
I outlined the costs and buying guides for the ultimate savings.
How much does it cost to make mayonnaise at home from scratch? | |||
Quantities | Quantities in grams | Cost | |
Lemon juice | 3/4 tbsp | 10.8 g | $0.20 |
Vegetable oil | 1 cup | 130 g | $0.41 |
Salt | 1/2 tsp | 2.9 g | $0.02 |
Medium egg | 1 | 49 g | $0.22 |
Mustard | 1/4 tsp | 1.3 g | $0.02 |
Cost of homemade mayonnaise – servings | 12 | $0.87 | |
Cost of homemade mayonnaise per serving | $0.07 | ||
Price per ounce | $0.13 | ||
SUM weight mayonnaise in grams | 194 | ||
SUM product weight in ounces | 6.8 |
How much money can you save if you make mayonnaise at home from scratch
You can’t save a lot of money if you make mayonnaise at home. If you also calculate the cost of labor and electricity, store-bought mayonnaise would cheaper for sure. There are many other dishes and recipes you can make to save much more. If you want to spend time in the kitchen and save money, don’t invest in making mayonnaise as it will only be a few cents cheaper to make it at home. Make it for the sake of taste and not money, as homemade mayonnaise has a much richer flavor.
To calculate the savings, we first calculated the average price of store-bought mayonnaise. The average price of store-bought mayonnaise is around 0.16$ per fl oz. Comparing this price to homemade mayonnaise revealed that you could save only 0,91$ if you would compare homemade mayonnaise to store-bought 30 floz (887 ml) jar.
The cheapest price found in the online stores was around 0,13$, which makes savings not even worth mentioning. The difference in price is only 5%, meaning that the price of homemade mayonnaise is basically the same as store-bought mayonnaise.
Costs and savings for homemade mayonnaise vs store-bought mayonnaise | |||||||
Weight | Price store-bought | price homemade from scratch | Difference | Monthly savings making mayonnaise twice a month | Yearly savings making mayonnaise twice a month | Homemade cheaper | |
Mayonnaise Average price | 30 floz Jar (887ml) | $4.89 | $3.98 | $0.91 | $0.91 | $10.88 | 19% |
Cheapest store-bought mayonnaise | 30 floz Jar (887ml) | $4.17 | $3.98 | $0.19 | $0.19 | $2.30 | 5% |
* The prices for ingredients and products in our tables are average prices take from various websites. The prices are not taken directly from Amazon.
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