I am trying to preserve home-made mayonnaise so that it can be shipped to family and friends, without the hassle of putting it in dry ice packs or the like. Is there a way to preserve it and ship the bottled mayonnaise by regular mail or courier?
-
Might I suggest an alternative course of action? You can save yourself the risks, mess, and shipping weight by mailing your friends and family a packet of seasoning along with simple instructions. You could even pack this in a jar for a fancy occasion. Assembling mayo isn't that difficult and by including the spice mix you give your own personal touch.– PrestonFeb 19, 2015 at 3:17
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
Nope. The only way you can really preserve things at home for room temperature storage is by canning in a boiling water bath or pressure cooker, and the heat from that will break the emulsion of your mayonnaise, completely ruining it. On top of this, mayonnaise will also tend to break at room temperature, so it won't work even if you make it safe.
Commercial mayonnaise uses pasteurized ingredients (in particular the eggs), and presumably the manufacturing process takes additional steps to avoid recontamination before it gets sealed up in jars. It also has additional stabilizers to keep it from breaking while sitting around at room temperature. The result is apparently shelf-stable, but even if you add emulsifiers/stabilizers to yours and get it to not break during shipping, I would be really hesitant to assume you've gotten it as bacteria-proof as the commercial stuff.
answered Sep 19, 2013 at 15:50
-
Commercial mayo is, from a safety standpoint, actually shelf-stable, even once opened. See, e.g., the the last question here (well, maybe it'll eventually grow mold). And the big thing keeping it from separating is precise ratios and very good emulsifying.– derobertSep 20, 2013 at 2:19
-
1... or here is another source saying Hellman's is shelf-stable: sandwichpro.com/NewsTrends/BuildingTheBiz/… ... note that appears to be by Unilever, who make the stuff.– derobertSep 20, 2013 at 2:22
-
@derobert From what I understood, it can still break sometimes, and the ones that hold best are the ones with more emulsifiers than you'd probably have in homemade mayo. I suppose if you add those, and your mayo is sufficiently acidic (I guess that's what keeps it from growing stuff?) it might just survive? But I'd be pretty nervous about it.– Cascabel ♦Sep 20, 2013 at 2:39
-
Sure. Commercial ones can probably break, and no doubt you can add things to prevent it... Especially if you want to save money on eggs. I'd be really hesitant to assume my home-made mayo was shelf stable, too. At least not without a lot of research.– derobertSep 20, 2013 at 2:42
I am getting ready to send home-made mayonnaise to my daughter in college. My only option, it seems, is to send it over-night. More expense yes, but mayonnaise will last with no problem for a short amount of time out of the refrigerator.
-
Are you including cold packs to keep the mayonnaise from separating? My homemade mayo always breaks if it sits out for too long.– EricaSep 29, 2015 at 11:50