Whole30 Basic Mayo

[DonnaGail]

Does anyone know how long the Whole30 basic mayo will last in the fridge?  I can't seem to find an answer anywhere on the web. Thanks!

[Jihanna]

Any recipe I've seen has always suggested using homemade mayo within a week or so of making it, but the official Google answer for "How long does homemade mayo last in the fridge?" is 2 weeks. Hope that helps

[Mummaknows]

It will last for as long as the egg expiry.

[Erinj]

Usually about a week in the fridge!!

[JenX]

I've had it last a week past the pull date on the eggs I used. You can tell when it goes off - it gets an off smell that is immediately noticeable.

 

[Amura]

I have just read The Whole30 book, and I was surprised to read that mayo would last a week in the fridge 
Homemade mayo is a wonderful enviroment for Salmonella!

According to Wikipedia:

Quote

About 142,000 people in the United States are infected each year with Salmonella Enteritidis from chicken eggs, and about 30 die

Quote

The U.S. government reported as many as 20% of all chickens were contaminated with Salmonella in the late 1990s, and 16.3% were contaminated in 2005.

So it's no so unlikely that your eggs are contaminated with Salmonella, and the longer your mayo lingers in the fridge the more they'll grow in it. (If it's outside the fridge then it's much worse.)

For that reason I've always heard that mayo should be discarded after a day.
And I remember my mom would discard any leftover right after the meal, just in case, but it's probably because we were children. Children, elderly people and pregnant women are the most likely to get dangerously ill and even die.

Food safety sometimes involves more than just expiry dates, and I think this is worth considering.

[SchrodingersCat]

Mayo is mostly oil, which is a preservative.

[Jihanna]

We had one batch that simply didn't get used within the week, and I think the last of it was used (without any ill effects) on day 11 or 12. I'd been iffy about using it because of how long it had been sitting in there, but it still smelled and tasted fine so we decided to use the last of it and hold off making more until we needed it. Since that time, though, we've tended to use it more quickly by making egg salad when we're coming to the end of the week it's been made. I write the date on the lid in permanent marker, then erase it with an essential oil when it's time to get the jar cleaned, so we don't have to try to think back to when that batch was made.  

[Babsie95]

I have found that if it is bad it will have a off smell that is unmistakable.  I have eaten mayo that was in the fridge 2 or more weeks (unusual because it does not usually make it that long)

[Amura]

22 hours ago, SchrodingersCat said:

Mayo is mostly oil, which is a preservative.

When you do preserves (in oil) you must cover all the food in oil, and even make sure there are no air bubbles - because whatever piece of food that is in contact with air will go bad, and eventually everything else. Mixing everything together and leaving it exposed to air (as happens with mayo) would not do the trick.

Actually in the case of mayo it's not oil but the acidity of vinegar (or lemon, if you choose to use it instead) what hinders bacterial reproduction
 

17 hours ago, Jihanna said:

We had one batch that simply didn't get used within the week, and I think the last of it was used (without any ill effects) on day 11 or 12. I'd been iffy about using it because of how long it had been sitting in there, but it still smelled and tasted fine so we decided to use the last of it and hold off making more until we needed it. Since that time, though, we've tended to use it more quickly by making egg salad when we're coming to the end of the week it's been made. I write the date on the lid in permanent marker, then erase it with an essential oil when it's time to get the jar cleaned, so we don't have to try to think back to when that batch was made.  

 

4 hours ago, Babsie95 said:

I have found that if it is bad it will have a off smell that is unmistakable.  I have eaten mayo that was in the fridge 2 or more weeks (unusual because it does not usually make it that long)

I'm not talking about an spoiled egg (which is what would make it smell) but that there are some bacterias which are often associated to eggs (over 15% of them is quite a significant ratio) that do cause Salmonellosis.

Again, according to Wikipedia, 30 people die every year in the USA because of Salmonellosis from chicken eggs. (Which actually means uncooked chicken eggs, because cooking them kills Salmonella.)
Using uncooked eggs, even the freshest ones, means you might be taking Salmonella. (The longer you wait though, the more bacteria. Specially in hot weather.)

Salmonellosis main symptom is diarrhea. Because of that, you might have Salmonellosis and think it's something completely different...
And dehydration is one of the reasons it's potentially dangerous for younger children and elder people, as well as for pregnant women. Usually not fatal, but yeah, there are those few cases.

Anyway.
I'm by no means telling anybody what you must do.
I simply come from a different cultural background, one in which making homemade mayo is the normal thing to do, and Salmonellosis cases are kinda frequent. So I thought I could share a bit of this information, which might be new for you, in case anybody finds it useful. If not, well, forgive me for being such a nuisance.

[laura_juggles]

I feel like instead of going into a long explanation of the concerns of salmonella, you could have discussed how to pasteurize your eggs at home to make them safer to use in raw egg preparations. 

https://www.thespruceeats.com/pasteurize-eggs-in-the-microwave-995505 

[Amura]

Because, unless you are concerned about Salmonella and the likes, why on earth would you care about pasteurizing them? 

[ArtFossil]

1 hour ago, Amura said:

Anyway.
I'm by no means telling anybody what you must do.
I simply come from a different cultural background, one in which making homemade mayo is the normal thing to do, and Salmonellosis cases are kinda frequent. So I thought I could share a bit of this information, which might be new for you, in case anybody finds it useful. If not, well, forgive me for being such a nuisance.

Discussion is never nuisance.

I hope your Whole30 is going smoothly. Fortunately, you get to choose to make homemade mayo or not on a Whole 30. Or even to eat eggs.

1 in 20,000 eggs has salmonella bacteria. But the leading cause of illness from salmonella is leafy greens (35% of all salmonella illness is caused by greens, vine and stalk produce, and fruits and nuts, according to the CDC)!

Those of us who love making mayo, aioli and caesar salad dressing are probably going to keep on using uncooked/undercooked eggs (I know I am) but no one else has to.

 

[SchrodingersCat]

Ah, I think being from Australia, we don't have the salmonella issue with eggs that the US does, so it's never on my radar.

Off topic, does anyone else think that Salmonella sounds like a gangster from the Al Capone era? "Al's colleagues were all unsavoury, and dangerous to some degree, but one of them, he was a terror. No one knew where he'd strike, and you could take precautions, but you never really knew where he'd spring from. His name was Sal, Sal Monella. Most people tried to avoid him, but if he ever came into your life, he'd go through you like a dose of salts. Sometimes he got caught... but he never stayed caught for long. Either he'd vanish in the night or, sometimes... sometimes those who caught him didn't make it"

 

[Amura]

Hahaha, yeah, absolutelly, Sal Monella does sound like a gangster  and your description hilarious!