When Making Mayo, Humidity Isn't Your Friend

Mayo is one of those versatile do-it-all cooking ingredients, ranging from a sandwich spread to the basis for chicken or egg salad, to an enhancement for grilled cheeses and marinades. Even better, it's easy to make at home with just a few common ingredients. But if the weather is humid, home cooks may want to push their mayo production to another day.

To understand why, consider the nature of mayonnaise and how it is really made. Mayo is an emulsion, a stable mixture of two liquids that don't typically combine. In this case, it's oil and a water-based acidic ingredient like vinegar or lemon juice. When carefully whisked together with an emulsiefier — in this case, egg yolks — they blend together. These ingredients don't naturally want to stay combined, so any significant alteration to this balance can cause less-than-ideal results.

High humidity (which is usually considered to be over 60% relative humidity) means that more water is present in the air around you. Some of that will be introduced into the mayo during the preparation process. The result is a heavier, greasier emulsion that's noticeably different than mayo that has been prepared under more dry conditions.

If you live in a humid climate and still want to make your own mayo, you're not out of luck entirely. Running an air conditioner can help to remove significant amounts of moisture from the air, as can a dedicated dehumidifier. This will not only make it easy to craft a top-quality homemade mayonnaise, but will probably make you more comfortable as well.

Humidity issues can be one of the mistakes everyone makes with homemade mayonnaise, as well as not letting eggs reach room temperature and using olive oil or other strongly-flavored oils instead of neutral ones. It's also a mistake not to customize the taste of your homemade mayo with garlic, fresh herbs, or spices for an extra kick of flavor.

Keep these issues in mind on the next steamy summer day or damp, rainy one. With so many incredible uses, there's no need to put up with subpar mayo, even if the weather isn't playing along.