Garlic Beefonnaise Recipe

A transgressively beefy burger upgrade.

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated March 27, 2024
An equation showing a jar of Hellmann's mayonnaise, a plus sign, a silhoutte of a cow, an equals sign and a jar of "beefonnaise."

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Why It Works

  • Diluting rendered saturated fat with vegetable oil makes forming an emulsion for mayonnaise possible.
  • Starting off with a spoonful of jarred mayonnaise ensures the emulsion is off to a good start and remains stable.

In a bid to utilize several animal fats I had squirreled away in my freezer, I created several mayo recipes, or as I like to call it, meatonnaise. Some, like lambonnaise, were a bust. The beef fat meato was bordering on the obscene—lightening it up with a significant amount of water and lemon juice, and adding a bit of garlic to cut into the overwhelming beef flavor, was the key to making it palatable. This one will be reserved for special, indulgent occasions, and perhaps a bit more testing in the future—there must be some application somewhere in the realm of burger sauces.

For more about the science of making animal-fat mayonnaise, see my recipe for baconnaise.

October 2009

Recipe Details

Garlic Beefonnaise Recipe

Prep 10 mins
Total 10 mins
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup rendered beef fat, melted (see note)
  • 1 1/4 cups canola oil
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (optional, see note)
  • 1 to 2 cloves garlic, grated on microplane grater or pressed through garlic press
  • 1 tablespoon water, plus more to correct consistency
  • Lemon juice to taste
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Combine beef fat and canola oil in 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Whisk to combine.

  2. Add egg yolks, Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, garlic, and water to bowl of food processor (see note). Run processor for 5 seconds to combine. Scrape down sides of processor bowl with rubber spatula. With processor running, slowly drizzle fat into bowl in a thin, steady stream, stopping and scraping down sides as necessary. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste, and adjust consistency with water until thick, smooth, and creamy, but not mouth-coatingly waxy. Store in refrigerator in air-tight container for up to two weeks.

Special Equipment

Food processor

Notes

This mayonnaise can be made with vegetable oil in place of the rendered animal fat - though flavor will suffer.

For insurance, I add jarred mayonnaise to the food processor at the start, which makes it easier to create a stable emulsion. If you are an experienced mayonnaise-maker who has no problems with mayonnaise breaking on you, you may omit the jarred mayonnaise.

The mayonnaise can also be made in a bowl with a whisk.

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