I only remember trying Miracle Whip a couple times when I was younger and not liking it...I wouldn't mind trying it as an adult. I just remember it having a weird "tangy" taste. Grew up and still use Best Foods Mayonnaise.

That reminds me how long do you keep MW or Mayo? I alway date my containers after opening but throw out more than I use. Hubs says I waste money buying the small containers but if I throw half a small one out how would I be saving buying larger. I do buy larger if I'm making potato or mac salad.

I never thought that it might have been homemade mayo that the restaurant used. Good point. Funny how some of you think that MW is sweeter, and some say it's tangy-er. I might just buy a smaller and see. : )

Kraft recommends tossing 3-4 months after opening. USDA says 2 months.

Morz. Thanks. I usually toss around 6 wks.

Cain's mayo here. Never heard of Duke's.

Like a few others, I use both.....it depends on the dish I am adding it to. I also use wasabi flavored mayo and now and again, chipotle flavored.

And I have to laugh at the comment about not having "sugar" in a sandwich :-)) Apparently that poster does not care for any sort of pickle relish or bread and butter pickles or cranberry sauce on a roast turkey sandwich, Russian dressing on a Rueben, or sweet and spicy mustard or no ketchup on a burger or something like chutney as a sandwich additive......all of which give a sandwich a personality and a distinctive hint of sweeteness/tartness flavor. But to each his/her own, I guess :-)

Has anyone tried Sir Kensington's mayonnaise? I'm going to splurge on a jar. Also will be curious when we travel south this winter to try Duke's mayo. Here in New England I buy Hellman's, but I agree - it's not what it used to be...

Seagrass, Dukes is the best Mayo I've ever eaten. I heard a lot of good about it on a washing machine forum so I ordered it from Amazon. I'm glad some grocery stores in my area now carry it. I think I've only ordered from Amazon 6 times and one of those was for mayo. LOL.

Did all of you get "The Talk"? I mean the "keep-the-mayo-pristine" talk. No dipping a used or contaminated utensil back into the mayo jar. (Images of innocent victims clenching their guts, hugging the toilet bowl, and so on)

Anyone caught dipping a tuna or eggy fork into a jar of mayo at our homestead, gets locked out, or fed compost or drain scraps; OR gets an injection from the notorious (not notorious enough) New England Compounding Pharmacy/Lab (they were a greedy grubby compounding lab in ? Waltham, MA who didn't pay attention to hygiene or sterility. Open windows, and their lab was right next door to the owner's recycling plant (lovely). Mold and filth, bacteria and whatever were all over the counters and materials. They manufactured, compounded a substance that was injected adjacent to the spinal canal of humans with chronic and severe back pain. The owner got off pretty easy after cashing out $$$. The chief pharmacist was charged with ? Manslaughter. Verdict just in. The victims -- many suffering fungal infections, fistulas, abcesses and other painful and fatal complications. But, surely, I have gone far off topic. Just makes me sad and mad.

But my mom was neat and, although the never trained in the nuances of microbiology or infection control, got the idea.

Hey! Did I rant on, or what?! Want to hear my rant about people who lick their eating utensils or jab them in my direction during dinner?

edit -- clean up

Yes, and I passed that edict onto my children. :-)

Growing up my mother always used the cheapest brand of salad dressing(AKA Miracle Whip) and called it mayonnaise. I thought I didn't like mayonnaise until I went to work in a restaurant as a teen and tasted real Hellman's mayonnaise. When I married and had my own home I only bought Hellman's and still do to this day.

Petalique.I've always taught my kids only clean utensils go in the condiments along with everything else. Another thing that disgusts me is to watch someone stirring the pot and taste test, put the utensil back in and stir. So gross. In my house even everyone's individual butter knife does not go in the butter. Theres a butter knife laying on the butter dish use it scrape the butter off onto a clean plate than use your own knife to spread just don't use your own knife in the butter.

Duke’s. Hellman’s in a pinch. I realize Duke’s isn’t available in some parts of the US. Never ever MW. I consider that fake mayo.

I was raised on MW and thought it was Mayo. Then I made tuna salad for the first time for DH and he threw down his sandwich and said "what's in this?". That was when I was forced to start using mayo. Haven't used MW since but I will tell you that my Mom's coleslaw dressing was the best and I know she used MW in it. Now we are using the mayo made with olive oil and love it. I tried Duke's after seeing people rave about it and I'm not impressed.

Hellman's here, I don't think I've ever had MW. I use very little, never on a sandwich. Mustard, please.

How do you folks remember what brand of stuff your mother bought? I guess we had a mayo substance in our house, but dang if I could begin to remember what it was. I remember what cereal Dad ate (Life and Total, mixed together, all his life), but otherwise I have no idea what brands we ate.

Dukes is available here as well as Kraft and Hellman's. I don't see much difference. I now mostly use the Aldi brand.

Sue

I use mayonnaise mostly in potato salad....mustard along with it, and I use mayo when making tartar sauce, which is fairly often, since we eat a lot of seafood. I seldom eat sandwiches, so may use a little on a ham sandwich. But as for throwing out the "old" mayo....I am good about that. I throw away everything in the fridge, far sooner than it really needs to be. That is one of my food "weirdnesses".....I don't keep stuff in the refrigerator that I know I probably won't eat...left overs for a day, rarely two....never three....and replace mayo, ketchup and dressings about every month.

After the flood, we stayed with a friend who lived about two miles away. We needed to be close in order to go check on and feed the animals. She was anorexic but hoarded food. She had two refrigerators but you couldn't slide a playing card in the space between all the stuff she kept. Bottles with a tablespoon of salad dressing, dozens of little bags and cartons and tupperware containers with little dabs of this or that.....that no one ever ate. We bought the groceries but there was no place to put anything. And she never ate. Maybe a couple of bites every day or so. Lived on beer and cigarettes. I know when you get that thin....about 100 lb, 5'6", you get an unrealistic view on how you actually look. We came home and slept on an air mattress on the floor.

I worked in a restaurant for many years, Yes we had MW and no mayo. When I was growing up we had only MW. I don't remember ever having mayo there either. Sometimes I buy mayo for a particular recipe, but I always use MW for sandwiches or salad or and homemade dressing that I make, no matter if it calls for MW or mayo. I think it is kind of a regional thing. I think in the south for sure most people use mayo. Yes I too add sugar to it sometimes

These individual packets of mayo would be good in my house for sandwiches. No waste from a jar that gets opened and not used. Target has them for 1.99

Like some others, I grew up having Miracle Whip in tuna and egg salad and so forth. We were tight on money, so MW was probably more affordable for our large family. But when I moved out, I bought some Hellman's and have used it exclusively, for my own family, with one exception. A summer dish my mother used to make, actually didn't taste as good to me, using mayonnaise, so I tried using MW again, and it was much better. It's the only dish I still prefer with MW, perhaps because it gives a more tangy or zesty taste than the Hellman's.

It's made with any type of pasta traditionally used for a cold salad, cut up dill pickles, chunks of tuna, and MW blended in, then paprika sprinkled on top. Because I only make this chilled salad in the summer, one jar of MW in the summer is all I ever purchase, whereas my Hellman's is used all year, for everything else!

Those little packets of mayo are very expensive on a per oz of product basis. You could buy a regular jar, throw half of it away, and you'd be spending less than half as much money compared to using packets. Use the whole jar and the savings is even greater.

MW is basically mayo with sugar and vinegar mixed in. So, I just keep mayo on hand and if the recipe calls for something a little sweeter(or MW), add accordingly. I'm really loving Hellman's Organic mayo these days.

Does no one here make their own mayo? It is very simple and requires just 3 ingredients you probably have on hand.

Irma doesn't homemade mayo use raw eggs?

I use coddled eggs which are safe.

I use raw eggs which are safe too :-) Plus I eat raw cookie dough and my grandfather taught me to make the most delicious zabaglione with nothing but sugar, raw eggs and Cognac. I'm still standing ...

PS That was the only thing outside of instant coffee that my grandfather could make. Once he tried to make strawberry jam and forgot to take the lid off the pot ...

ETA: Please do not take my endorsement as advice to do as I do. I have access to very fresh, small production eggs. It's one of the joys of living in Northern California. Follow Elmer's advice below to be absolutely safe.

We use applesauce only when we have pork, so I buy the little containers that I think are meant for school lunches. One cup is just enough for both of us.

Rita I used to make the best egg nog but quit when I'd heard the raw egg scares. Hmmm maybe it will make a comeback this Christmas. Thank You.

Chisue my hubs refuses to eat pork without applesauce. I buy the huge tubs as we have it with most meals. When I get my hands on a bunch of apples, as in someone passes a big bag to me from their tree I let the boys make applesauce in the crock pot. So good so easy.

Rita, you may know that a high percentage of eggs in the US are contaminated with salmonella and/or other pathogens. Repeated testing seems to come to consistent findings over the years. One of the federal agencies, I think the FDA, advises against eating them raw or undercooked. That's been their advice for awhile, take it or leave it. I take it. For healthy people, the risk is akin to a bout of food poisoning. For others, if pregnant, with compromised immune system, etc., the risk is greater.

The risk is completely avoidable. You can buy pasteurized eggs for safe use for recipes requiring raw eggs, like mayonnaise or Caesar salad dressing.

Good point, Elmer. I never ate raw eggs when I was pregnant (or raw anything like fish or oysters). Maybe I have just been lucky to never become ill so far. I do buy pretty nice eggs though- often fresh from a relatively local farm.

I think I should delete my post lest anyone take my endorsement and become ill.

I'll think twice about my practices, Elmer.

Rita, here's a quick article with interesting info about egg practices in various countries. I'd heard about the washing/no washing thing. I'm not sure I would trust raw eggs in the UK but on the Continent, probably. One dish I love that I would never in a million years eat in the US is steak tartare, also called somewhat comically Filet Americain in French speaking parts of Europe. Raw egg AND raw hamburger. It's delicious but I save my appetite for it when I'm across the Atlantic, food production cleanliness and food handling standards are much higher there than here.

Eggs from NPR

Hmmm......I've eaten steak tartare numerous times locally - one upscale downtown Seattle restaurant specializes in it - and I am still alive to tell the tale. But then I tend to ignore unnecessarily pessimistic food cautions. The only time I have ever had food poisoning was from eating rancid dry honey roasted peanuts - the honey glaze hid any rancid taste!

btw, good steak tartare is made with filet or tenderloin.....not hamburger!!

Yes, I'm VERY aware of how it's made, I made it myself when living in Europe. There's no part of the cow carcass that's hamburger so it and steak haché are of course one or more primal cuts cut up or ground.

I'd never eat it here because of how lax our food and inspection standards are. That's just my view. The EU has taken the lead to show that the consistently sad state of food contamination in the US food supply chain is avoidable and unnecessary. Your comment is similar to one in another thread today - to call problems and expert advice "unnecessarily pessimistic" is to deny fact and reality. It's your choice but one that I think you may others aren't persuaded by.

I've never heard of hamburger tartare...but maybe its a budget type so people from all walks of life get a chance to try it??

Many people call chopped/minced/ground meat hamburger regardless.

You should really not have undercooked hamburger meat unless it is chopped meat from one cut of meat- not a gigantic batch of chopped/ground meat from all sorts of parts and various cows.

Rita, that is exactly what I meant - steak tartare is made from a high quality steak cut like the filet or tenderloin. It is not just random ground up beef!!

Elmer, you are certainly entitled to your opinions but wherever they originate from, they are only YOUR opinions and do not need to be applied uniformly to others who do not share a similar opinion. I have eaten and traveled widely and have yet to find issues with the quality of US produced food. Certainly nothing to the point where it has made me or anyone else I know ill. So yes, I do consider those cautions to be overly pessimistic. YMMV

Yes, thanks, just as you are entitled to your opinions and similarly they remain only yours.

The monitoring testings find the consistent presence of pathogens, often dangerous ones, in eggs and meat throughout the US. Consumer Reports and academic organizations have done regular testing over the years, separate and apart from what the inspectors do, and the findings are always the same. These are regular items reported in the mainstream press so if it's news to you, then fine. I can see how perhaps for you it's easy to doubt warnings when the factual problems are unknown. As before in the same way with your opinions, that doesn't change the facts.

Irma, I make my own mayo frequently but am curious about your three ingredient recipe. My absolute basic recipe calls for five.

Well, I'm 74 and my only health issues are respiratory, caused from heredity and lots of upper respiratory infections as a child.

I eat chocolate mousse made with raw eggs. I eat homemade mayo with raw eggs. My 1st husband made a mean steak tartare - we had it weekly in the summer with a nice salad and crusty bread. We went to a small local market known for it's good meat and the butcher ground the sirloin while we waited. And yes, it also had raw egg in it. I also eat raw oysters.

I simply refuse to worry myself to death over these things.

As for the mayo vs MW - my mother rarely had mayo in the house - NEVER MW - as we were a Durkee's or Shedd's family. My father much preferred a spicier/tangier dressing for sandwiches. If she had to buy mayo, it was Hellman's. Living in a state that considers itself "southern", Dukes is available. I know it's a heresy to say this but I find it too oily for my taste. But Hellman's doesn't taste as nice as it once did, so if I were making for more than one sandwich, I'd make my own mayo in the Cuisanart. Durkee's always on a turkey or BLT!

I use Mayo and my husband is a Miracle Whip man! HAHA! He LOVES Miracle Whip, piles it on his sandwiches. I've found that I can make a very simple tartar sauce with MW with just dill relish and some diced onion with a little bit of Cajun seasoning.

I use a lot of mayo in my homemade Ranch Dressing. I've found that the ALDI mayo is just as good as Hellman's.

rhizo, the 3 necessary ingredients are egg, oil and vinegar (or lemon or lime juice)

I use a variety of herbs etc., depending how I'll use it - which might be pesto, parsley, dill, curry paste, garlic. horseradish, sun-dried tomatoes, lemongrass, capers, hot pepper.

Usually I use lemon juice or lime juice but also like cider vinegar. I also switch the oils. I'm on a salt restricted diet and don't add that. More often than not I do not add mustard.

I'm interested to know how you make yours.

Mayo for me. I know I use it too often. I like to dip my french fries in mayo. Luckily that is a rare treat.

Blue Plate. I tried MW once and didn't like it. I have never discarded condiments. I have never made mayo, but I have no problem with raw eggs. I love cookie dough before baking. I love steak tartare if I grind the meat. I don't make it much, since my husband only eats well done anything.

I have never seen Hellmann's in stores here so when a commercial came on for Hellmann's mayo, I was surprised at the similarity of the labeling and packaging to Best Foods. Come to find out, they are the exact same product, just marketed under different labels in different parts of the country (and the world). Best Foods is sold west of the Rockies while Hellmann's is sold east of the Rockies but both manufactured and distributed by the same parent company.

Didn't know that......I learn something new every day!!

I like Portmans salad dressing from Save-a-Lot. I like the tang of it. I don't like Mayo and. never eat raw eggs,meat or seafood.

My mother usually used Miracle Whip but occasionally mayo. Never ate a whole lot growing up but on my own I appreciated mayo/MW more. I still prefer the tang of MW for many things but a good mayo is fine too. NEVER do I use Hellman's. The stuff is so bland it's not worth putting on there AFAIC. Kraft is pretty good and I'll even use store brands . I'm not real fussy. I've started using sour cream mixed in with either if I'm making potato salad or pasta salads, and if it's only mayo I definitely add a splash of vinegar to get a little of the desired "tang". People bragged so about Hellman's that I tried it. It's not for me. I want flavor.

I don't understand the either or mentality. They don't serve the same purpose. Miracle Whip is sweeter and good for some things and mayo is not as sweet, but good for others things.

.

The one thing I really don't understand is the whole "tangy" (it wasn't you who made me wonder this cynic. Truly. I've been wondering a long time... it was television) thing. Why should yogurt, or sour cream, or mayo, or whatever be tangy? Why is that any more or less desirable? We need the whole range of tastes, so why settle? :)

The only thing Miracle Whip is good for is throwing away!!! I kid. But I remember in my college years I heard that MW was a good skin exfoliator. I would coat my poor face in MW and have to smell it for 30 minutes. I don't know what I was thinking!