Homemade Japanese mayonnaise is easily prepared with a few ingredients.
Gather useful tips below to get it right, including our 5-minute sushi takeaway mayonnaise recipe.
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This mayo recipe is part of our Japanese food series.
I brought in an expert from Japan, Momoko, to share the best and most useful Japanese food recipes with you guys!
She runs a popular Japanese food takeaway in Goa, India.
This mayo is prepared from scratch with a handful of whole ingredients.
It's without MSG and an authentic recipe, just the way it's prepared in people's homes in Japan.
Ingredients
You will need 5 ingredients to make this Japanese Mayo. All the US and metric measurements are found further below in the recipe card.
- Egg
- Sugar
- Rice Vinegar — Can be substituted with a mild tasteless Vinegar such as distilled vinegar.
- Salt
- Oil — Plain flavored oil such as vegetable oil and sunflower oil.
How to make Japanese Mayo?
Preparing this special mayonnaise sauce from scratch is super easy!
I show you in a quick preview below how to make it from scratch.
For detailed instructions and ingredients listed, see recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1
Place all the ingredients in a measuring cup: the egg, sugar, salt, vinegar, and oil.
Step 2
Blend with a hand blender to a smooth emulsion and consistency.
Use in other recipes or flavor to your liking. You can make it spicy too!
📖 Recipe
Japanese Mayonnaise Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Egg *see Notes
- 1 Teaspoon Sugar *see Notes
- 2 Teaspoon Rice Vinegar *see Notes
- Salt originally 1 teaspoon but as per the comments, reduce to ½ Tsp
- ¾ Cup Sunflower Oil or other vegetable oil
Instructions
- Get a measuring cup to make the mayo and keep a hand blender ready.
- Add the whole egg, sugar, salt, vinegar, and oil to the measuring cup.1 Medium Egg, 1 Teaspoon Sugar, 2 Teaspoon Rice Vinegar, Salt, ¾ Cup Sunflower Oil
- Immerse the hand blender into the cup and turn it on, but don't make any sudden moves. Just keep it in one place, do not move up the blender stick, or else the mayo won't turn out great. Literally keep it in one place!
- Keep it immersed, and you will notice that the mayonnaise will turn whiter and silkier over time. Blend until you are satisfied with the consistency and color. This can take about 3 minutes.
- You can choose to flavor your Japanese mayonnaise at the end with mustard or sriracha. Mix in well.
- Store your mayonnaise in an airtight container until further use or use right away. See serving recommendations in post.
Notes
- Use only warm room temperature egg, never a cold egg. A cold egg turns the mayonnaise more liquid. This is important!
- We used brown sugar, but you can use regular sugar too.
- Substitute rice vinegar with distilled vinegar if you can't get rice vinegar.
- Recipe quantity comes to 7 ounces/ 200 grams. That's about 5 servings if used in sushi and as a dip.
- You can flavor your mayo. See in post for flavor ideas.
Nutrition
Variations
To make a spicy sriracha mayonnaise, add 1 Teaspoon sriracha sauce to the mayonnaise at the end, when the mayo is silky smooth and white.
For a mustard mayonnaise, add ½ Teaspoon of Dijon mustard or your favorite mustard paste or powder, to the other ingredients before you make the mayo sauce.
I also love to make curry flavored mayonnaise.
Uses
The Japanese are crazy about their mayo! They add it to all kinds of foods. The most popular use for this mayonnaise is in sushi. Yes, there is mayo in your sushi!
Fill a soft squeeze bottle with your homemade mayonnaise and add about 1 tablespoon worth into your sushi before you roll it up.
Kani salad is also prepared with Japanese mayonnaise. It's a surimi crab stick-based salad.
The condiment is also great as a dip with Japanese fried chicken (karaage) and conventional potato fries.
Mayonnaise is also used in hibachi sauces, such as in a yum yum sauce. You can use it as a dressing too, the same way you would use any other mayonnaise.
Storing
Store the sauce in a squeezable airtight bottle or any other airtight container with a lid.
Keep it away from exposed oxygen (hence why in a container with lid) or else it loses its beautiful silky white texture and turns almost translucent (and that doesn't look that great).
You can keep your mayo in the fridge for up to 1–2 days before it goes bad.
It's better to make fresh may whenever you need it.
FAQs
Yes, homemade Japanese mayonnaise can be gluten-free if you use the right ingredients. Your vinegar shouldn't contain malt. Check ingredient labels, they shouldn't contain wheat.
Add about 1 Teaspoon rice vinegar and ½ Teaspoon sugar to ¾ cup (200 grams) of store bought American mayonnaise and combine.
You can use plain distilled vinegar instead of rice vinegar. Although, it tastes way better with rice vinegar.
