‘The closest I tried to homemade’: the best supermarket mayonnaise, tasted and rated

After a lifetime of making his own, our columnist put a selection of shop-bought mayos to the test. Which brands are rich and satisfying, and which smell like a pickled egg?

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I’ve spent my whole adult life making mayonnaise from scratch, turning my nose up at store-bought versions with chef-like snobbery, but after this tasting, I’m ready to accept that jarred mayonnaise is a valid addition to the store-cupboard.

I wanted to consider in more depth what it is we want from a mayonnaise. According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, mayonnaise is an emulsion of two liquids that don’t normally combine – oil and water – stabilised by egg yolk’s lecithin, which allows the oil to form tiny droplets dispersed in the water and creates that wonderful, unctuous, fatty texture we so love.