Why does my mayo freeze in the fridge?
I made some mayo last weekend and placed it in a large mason jar inside the fridge. After 3-4 hours, I took the jar out to use the mayo, only to find out that it has become 'ice cream' like in terms of thickness and texture. I think it was frozen because after leaving it out for a few minutes, the mayo became watery and separated.
Why did this happen? This is the mayo recipe I used:
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons ground mustard
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/8 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Best Answer
You have to heed the difference between two meanings of "frozen" here. In the kitchen, we frequently use "frozen" in sense 1), cooled to less than 0 Celsius, so that the water in the food (most food contains water) freezes to ice. Sense 2) is roughly consistent with what physicists describe as a phase change: a compound which has changed from its liquid to its solid phase. In this sense, alcohol freezes at -114 C, sunflower oil freezes at -17 C and coconut oil freezes at +24 C. A cook is more likely to say "solidify" instead of "freeze" in this case, but it does look and feel like freezing, so sometimes people use that word too, or can even think that if it happened, it automatically also implies freezing in the first sense.
I highly doubt that your mayo froze in the first sense. But as you see from my examples in the second sense, two things can have the same behavior at different temperatures, for example coconut oil at 24 C behaves the same way that sunflower oil behaves at -17 C. It is plausible that you created an emulsified mixture that, at the temperature of your fridge (which is probably in the +0.5 to +10 C range depending on your local food safety rules and propensity to follow them) superficially behaves similarly to how cream based air-whipped emulsions behave at -6 C to produce ice cream. That is, you got the same texture as you had frozen whipped cream, no matter the temperature of your fridge.
It is also normal for emulsions to break after freezing and thawing. So that would explain the separation you saw after taking it out again.
I cannot say exactly what single part of your recipe "caused" it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was an interaction of many factors at once. To prevent it, you could try variations like using a mixing device which adds less air to the mixture, or reducing the speed if available, using no egg whites, using less acid, using no olive oil, and using a different temperature during whipping. It will be a matter of trial and error to find which one measure (or combination of them) is sufficient for you to prevent the problem. And of course, they all come with their own consequences, so if you discover more than one way to prevent the solidifying-separation cycle, you have to make your own choice which one to use.
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Can you use mayonnaise after it freezes?
Don't expect mayonnaise to retain its original texture after freezing or re-emulsifying it. Once defrosted, mayonnaise will have a thinner texture but it is still safe to eat. Now that you know how to freeze mayonnaise, you can go ahead and freeze a jar or two for salads, sandwiches, and soups!How do you store mayonnaise in the refrigerator?
Store-Bought Mayonnaise If you leave commercial mayonnaise unrefrigerated, taste suffers and out in the warm sun, it turns brown. A refrigerator set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit maintains the quality of an open jar of mayonnaise for up to two months.Does mayo go bad in the fridge?
After opening: 2 months in the fridge Or, does mayo go bad? Before it's opened, a jar of mayo will last in the pantry for about three months. If you just opened a jar, know that it should be stored in the refrigerator and used within two months.Why does mayo separate in the fridge?
A.: Your jar of mayonnaise likely has spent too much time in the coldest part of your refrigerator and probably got frozen at some point. This often happens when the jar gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator and forgotten. Freezing will cause mayonnaise to separate.What happens if you freeze mayonnaise?
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Answer 2
Which kind of vegetable oil? Each oil will have a different solid/liquid/gas temperature profile. For example, coconut oil freezes (becomes a solid) at 25c (as mentioned by @rumtscho).
See: http://www.veganbaking.net/articles/tools/fat-and-oil-melt-point-temperatures
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Mikhail Nilov, Francesco Ungaro, Ruvim Miksanskiy, Pixabay