I’ll just come right out and say it: this butter mayo is divine. We’ve been on an anti-inflammatory journey in this house with pretty miraculous results, and switching to homemade butter mayo was a bigger piece of that than I expected. Almost every mayonnaise on the grocery store shelf starts with soybean oil, a GMO crop loaded with polyunsaturated fatty acids, which means inflammation from the moment it hits your body. The “healthy” holistic ones still have junk in them half the time, and they run you about $10 for a 16-ounce jar. This recipe costs a fraction of that and tastes better than anything I’ve bought.
Why Make Butter Mayo Instead of Store-Bought
I learned this method from a guy on YouTube called Chris Cooking Nashville, with just a couple small tweaks of my own. The whole point of butter mayo is getting the seed oils and PUFAs out of something you probably eat all the time, whether it’s on a burger, in egg salad, or stirred into chicken salad. It’s rich, it’s not runny, and unlike some butter mayo recipes that separate oddly in the fridge, this one sets up smooth and stays that way.
Ingredients for Butter Mayo
This makes a double batch, which is what I always do since my family goes through it fast:
- 2 sticks of butter (I use organic; a heavy cream butter from a dairy cow works beautifully too)
- 2 eggs, separated (yolks and whites kept apart)
- Juice of about 1/2 a lemon, more if needed
- A couple generous pinches of salt
- 1 rounded tablespoon Dijon mustard (yellow mustard works too) — this is your emulsifier
You will also need an immersion/stick blender. If you’re strict carnivore and skipping the mustard and lemon, you still need some kind of emulsifier in there, like apple cider vinegar, or the butter mayo won’t come together.
How to Make Butter Mayo
- Melt the butter fully on the stove (don’t brown it), then set it aside to stay warm but not hot.
- Separate the eggs. Put the yolks in a tall jar or cup for blending, and set the whites aside — you’ll need them later.
- Blend the yolks on high for a few seconds with your immersion blender.
- Add the lemon juice, salt, and mustard to the yolks, then blend again on high until combined.
- With the blender running, ladle in the warm butter one ladle at a time, blending continuously. Don’t dump it all in at once. It will look thin and liquidy at this stage — that’s normal, don’t worry.
- Once all the butter is incorporated, add the reserved egg whites and blend them in. This is the trick that stabilizes the mayo so it doesn’t act funny when it comes out of the fridge.
- Pour into mason jars and refrigerate. It will fully set up once chilled.
Tips for Butter Mayo That Doesn’t Separate
The egg whites are the real secret here. A lot of people who try butter mayo skip them and end up with something that looks a little funny once it’s been in the fridge. Blending the whites in at the very end is what keeps this smooth and stable. Also, go slow with the butter. One ladle at a time, fully blended in before you add the next, gives you that thick, not-runny texture every time.
This butter mayo keeps about five to seven days in the fridge. Once you make it, your family is going to ask for it again. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turned out for you, and what else you’d like to see us make that’s anti-inflammatory and healing.