Joyce Angus’ Homemade Mayo

You just know when a recipe has someone’s name in the title that it is legendary. Joyce Angus’ Homemade Mayo fits the bill for sure!

Joyce was one of my childhood friend’s Mom so you know it has stood the test of time ‘cuz many of us are still using her recipe!

Three of four of us girlfriends would congregate at the Angus household pretty much every day after school. Between learning the latest dance or listening to the latest hits we would regularly raid the fridge to make a cheese sandwich.

Our town, Winchester, Ontario is dairy territory. The main employer in the town was historically Ault’s Dairy where the surrounding dairy farmers sent their milk for processing.

Ault’s was also a cheese factory. We took amazing cheddar cheeses and fresh, squeaky, warm curds for granted in my youth. Sigh….

The once-family owned industry eventually took over several other prominent brands such as Sealtest and and Silverwood. As part of the consolidation of the Canadian Dairy industry Sealtest and Silverwood were sold to Agropur and Ault itself was acquired by Parmalat.

Imagine my disappointment many years ago when I stopped at the Parmalat Cheese Shop hoping to stock up on the fresh Cheddar I remembered from my youth. I was told they did not sell the cheeses directly to the public. Something about competition with themselves. Sounded like a crock to me then and still does now because lots of manufacturers have ‘factory outlets’ for their goods.

Anyway… the combo of that fresh cheddar and Joyce’s mayo was legendary!

You will notice there is no oil in this salad dressing. (I found other similar recipes on-line, usually referred to as ‘Gramma’s Homemade Mayonnaise’! )

What makes it so good?

Well it probably has to do with the bit of sugar and the tang from the vinegar that make it a bit sweet and tangy. And the fact that, because you blend it with your favourite store-bought mayo on a 1:1 ratio, it has a familiar texture.

So… bonus… blending it cuts the fat from the regular mayo in half and it doubles your mayo volume for literally pennies.

So the big questions is:

How Long Can I Keep This Salad Dressing?

• Most homemade dressings suggest 1-2 weeks refrigerated depending on what the most delicate ingredient in the mixture is.
• Shelf-life can be determined approximately by the shelf life of the most delicate ingredient and the environment it is in.
• An acidic environment is needed to create an environment inhospitable to bacteria.
• An emulsion of olive oil and a raw egg says to keep refrigerated and use within a week.
• This salad dressing contains vinegar and is cooked so it has 2 huge advantages over the oil and raw egg version.
• I would give this 2 weeks easily.  Anecdotally I have heard a month in the fridge.
• So you have a few options.  If you are concerned you could halve the recipe so you have a smaller amount to get through.
• You could also make it when you know you are going to make a  potato salad, egg salad or coleslaw.
• Again, if you don’t anticipate using it all right away I would suggest you wash 2 mason jars, rinse but don’t dry them and sterilize them in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Soak the lids in boiling water for 5 minutes. After you mix the homemade and regular may store it in the sterilized jars.

Frankly – I don’t think how long it lasts is going to be a problem in my household!  The first time my husband had it was when  I had prepared a coleslaw with it.  First bite – his eyes lit up and he said what did you different this time?  He was thrilled. 

And every time he opened the fridge he looked for Joyce’s mayo before he looked for just regular.