BREAKING: Hellmann's has changed their mayonnaise! "Yes, we have changed the formula of Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise" reports Hellmann's owner Unilever, via email with The Kitchen. This is tragic! The Kitchen talks about the alternative of making your own mayo, but that's not a great solution. Homemade mayo doesn't keep and each batch requires a lot of ingredients (at least a cup of oil). I know we don't use that much mayo in a week in our house. Honestly, I'm freaking out. Hellmann's is the only mayo I like! And what will become of our post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches if we have to use the new "sweeter with a chemically tangy aftertaste" version?! Please oh please don't let this be true.
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Meg,
Fans convinced Coca-Cola to bring back Coke Classic, perhaps we can do the same with Hellmans. If I wanted “sweet and tangy” I’d buy that horrible Kraft crap.
This is possibly the worst thing ever. Hellman’s mayo is the only reason to go to a supermarket. It’s that good.
A former friend of mine once claimed she could make mayo as good as Hellman’s, which was a total lie and I told her to her face.
I love Hellman’s (Best Foods here in the west). But homemade mayo is also yummy and is not that hard to make with a clever shortcut my sister taught me.
Use an immersion blender (there’s always about ten of them at my local Goodwill for about $3) and a large, tall glass that is wide enough at the bottom so that the head of the immersion blender touches the bottom but doesn’t have much room around the perimeter. Put your eggs and oil in the glass (and whatever else your recipe calls for), insert the blender and let her rip. No need to drizzle the oil in slowly – 20 to 30 seconds later, you have mayo.
True it doesn’t have the preservatives to give it staying power, but it’s a great addition to macaroni salad. Sometimes I make it with duck eggs for a extra rich version.
AAAAARGH!!!! This is tragic.
I really love French mayonnaise, which is made with sunflower oil. I don’t know where you can buy it in New York, but here in Los Angeles we have several small French import markets that sell it, and I’ve also seen it in Whole Foods in L.A. and D.C.
Homemade mayo is a no-go with the wee tots around my house (unless I go through the hassle of buying pasteurized eggs). So this is like saying, “No mayo for you! Ha!”
On the upside, if I start making mayo more consistently, that also means I’ll make more aioli since, well, if I’m making the mayo I may as well use the olive oil and may as well toss in some garlic and then, you know, I’ve got aioli.
Mmmmm. _Aioli_.
try some of the southern brands and Louisiana brands. followup soon w/ recommendations, but I am on the road.
Yes, one Southern brand to try is Duke’s. It’s got tang without sweetness. The Lee Brothers sell it on their website (www.boiledpeanuts.com), and I’m pretty sure their price is better than ordering it directly from Duke’s (www.dukesmayo.com). Anyone raised in South Carolina will tell you it’s the only mayo to use. Good stuff.
Miracle Whip has better flavor and is a great alternative to the hoary Hellmann’s brand.
Blasphemy! How dare you compare Miracle Whip to Hellman’s. The horror! The horror!
Ack! Miracle Whip isn’t even mayonnaise! It says so right on the label. For many years I thought I hated mayonnaise, then I found this great sauce while living in Europe that turned out to be… mayonnaise. At first I thought I only liked the homemade stuff, but it transpires that I like mayo just fine. It’s simply Miracle Whip that’s nasty beyond description.
Miracle Whip?!? Gack! Compare the ingredients:
Miracle Whip: WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, VINEGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, EGG YOLKS, SALT, MUSTARD FLOUR, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, POTASSIUM SORBATE AS A PRESERVATIVE, SPICE, PAPRIKA, NATURAL FLAVOR, DRIED GARLIC.
Duke’s: soybean oil, eggs, water, vinegar, salt, oleoresin paprika, and natural flavors.
I did some searching and discovered that it makes sense that I like Duke’s so much better than anything else: it’s the only commercial mayo that uses no sugar. Sweet mayo=custard=yuck.
I was surprised to see that Hellmann’s has sugar in it. I hadn’t seen that, and I swear I’ve looked at the ingredients before now. Also, I’m trying to do some more research about this, stay tuned!
Miracle Whip is the devil. Period! I’m glad we had this little talk…
I recently bought some Hellman’s in a squeeze bottle, thinking it’d keep me from getting my knuckles smeared with mayo from the mouth of the jar when trying to spoon out the stuff in the very bottom. It took me about one use to decide I wouldn’t be doing that again. It’s watery and gross, more the consistency of salad dressing than good old Hellman’s Mayonnaise. I figured they must’ve tweaked the formula to be squeeze-friendly, and was actually kind of shocked that they’d sacrifice so much quality for convenience, given their brand reputation. This isn’t no-name store-brand brand mayo here. If they’re messing with the stuff in the plain old glass jar too now, there’s just no excuse for that.
umm… It’s mayonnaise, people.
umm…it’s a food blog, MR. we’re allowed to be passionate about food and yes, even about condiments here =)
I share the dismay that Hellman’s is changing its recipe. I’ll have to try this Duke’s that everyone’s mentioning.
@MR: As far as I know, it’s the ONLY mayonnaise. Imagine if Heinz changed its ketchup recipe.
Have you ever tried Spectrum mayonnaise? It’s absolutely delicious- and organic.
AHH! my devilled eggs will never be the same!
why the blankety blank would Hellman’s want to begin putting sugar in their mayo? Real mayonnaise (what a weird name)…. but it’s a seal of being true product. I will not call Hellman’s anything but mayo from now on. They can go to Hellman. And Miracle Whip? I love it, just like I now love a TRUE mayonnaise. Hellman’s is dead. Long live Hellman’s. I don’t care for Duke’s basketball team, but I’ll do Duke’s mayonnaise. Uggh. sugar … should only be in Miracle Whip, not mayo.
what happen to the Hellmans Slogan?????
“Bring out the Hellmans and bring & out the Best!” ?
Sing with me people!!!!!
+1 for Duke’s
Southerners know what’s best. Trust us. At least when it comes to food. Politics is another matter altogether…
where do I sign the petition?
Hellman’s has always had sugar, or at least as long as I can remember–and I can taste it. A couple of trips to France and a few seafood platters with real mayo and I couldn’t go back to Hellman’s here in the states. (Miracle Whip is not mayonnaise, but an industrial travesty nonetheless.) I’ve always thought Hellman’s a barely acceptable product in some situations and unacceptable in others. It’s mayo for those who put sugar in their vinaigrettes. Many traditional American cookbooks include sugar in the salad dressing recipes. Depending one one’s point of view, which in turn may depend on when and where, or whether, Julia Child influenced your taste buds, Hellman’s appeals to a different palate or a less educated palate.
Home made mayo is a snap for some people and a real pain for others. It does however, let you choose your oil as well as whole eggs or yolks.
In NYC, you can get Delouis fils Fresh Mayonnaise at Whole Foods and other places. It’s imported from France and lists sunflower oil,egg yolk, mustard, white wine vinegar, salt, and lemon as ingredients. It should last about a month in the refrigerator after opening. It’s an acceptable product for me.
I’ve heard about Duke’s, but never had the opportunity to taste it. Water dilutes the product and I prefer egg yolks to whole eggs, but it’s enlightening to know Duke’s doesn’t have sugar.
Cain’s mayo — available in New England, I’m not sure of elsewhere — is still just as good as Hellman”s used to be. I hope they don’t go changing too!
Slime is slime.
Mayonnaise is like passive smoking before laws were passed. It’s everywhere in everything. “What the hell, why don’t we add one more ingredient … what about mayonnaise?” Mayonnaise should be banned in prepared, restaurant, and fast foods, and only served on the side. Or at the very minimum, an Intel Inside style label should be required so that they can’t slip it to us in “special sauces.”
Duke’s and various organic alternatives have already been mentioned. For homemade, you can find pasteurized eggs (so it’ll last longer) or, heck, only use half a yolk and make half a batch.
So THAT’S what was wrong with the mayo I bought this weekend!! I made mini BLT appetizers and it tasted just a touch too sweet. Totally explained…YUCK.
We stopped buying Hellman’s when we discovered Kewpie mayo from Japan, available at most Asian grocery stores. Tastes more like fresh mayo to us.
And then there’s Nayonnaise, a soy product. Not bad at all for fake mayo.
I second the Japanese mayo recommendation. So delicious, I used to hate mayo, but when I left Japan, I was hooked. I hassled the local asian grocery to get it for me. It is good stuff, and as a bonus the packaging is surprisingly minimal for a Japanese product.
See also my entry about calling Hellmann’s to get more information about the change in the formula.
Kewpie has MSG.
That’s what makes it sooooo good.
Whole Foods brand mayo from canola oil has put us off all other brands anyway. try it, it is spectacular.
I agree, 365 Canola mayo is the best
“… packaging is surprisingly minimal for a Japanese product”: The overpackaging accusation always slays me. The packaging *per serving* is exactly the same for Japan and the U.S. Japanese just don’t scarf down tons of food at one sitting. One cookie is serving in Japan, so it makes sense to package it separately. One family-sized bag of Chips Ahoy is similarly a serving for many fat Americans, so its packaging also makes sense for that market.
This happened to my favourite peanut butter too. I live in the US now, so when I moved I started importing my peanut butter from my hometown in Canada, because it’s just too sugary here. Squirrel Peanut Butter, in Canada, had true peanut flavour with creamy spreadability. It was delicious and healthier than most in the US. As an added bonus, when you first broke open the vacuum seal, there were two or three actual peanuts sitting on top of the PB. Always a pleasant surprise.
Of course all good things come to an end, particularily in business. Squirrel brand was bought out or something, because it’s now Skippy. It’s a disgusting sugary mess. And of course, no more peanuts on top. I hate it when a product I grow to love changes.
One other note of interest, is that this change resonated throughout all peanut butters in Canada. There were other quality options once Squirrel changed, but the others soon followed suit and added much more sugar to their products. Margins over quality. It makes me sad.
About Hellman’s so called REAL mayo. I ate it for years and kept the glass jars for freezer soup. Yes, it tasted the best. Then I got prostate cancer and started looking at the fine print, i.e., the ingredients in all the processed foods I ate. I phoned Best Foods here in Canada to find out about their vegetable oil. They use canola oil, which if not otherwise specified, implies it is genetically modified. GMO means it is aligned with the Roundup gene from Monsanto. These chemical herbicides are not part of the human evolution. Our evolution as humans is being experimented on by the corporations we invest in with our food dollars and our GIC’s. I now eat Spectrum Natrurals which uses a non-GMO canola oil. It doesn’t taste quite as good but I am now used to it.
If we’re talking alternatives, if you have a Trader Joe’s in your neighborhood, try their mayo. It’s the only mayo I’ve ever tried that I liked better than Best Foods/Hellmans.
And John…we’ve been eating GM crops for decades in the US. There have been studies done. If there were an link between GM foods and cancer, do you think for one minute that anyone would eat food made from GM crops? So you got cancer. That’s too bad. But guess what? Lots of people get cancer. More people don’t than do, though, and almost all of those people eat foods made from GM crops. If there were a causal link there would be a demonstrably higher incident of cancer, and one which couldn’t be explained away by greater population densities.
In any event, let’s really look at this. Let’s say you eat a genetically modified soybean. Are you saying its genetic structure is somehow attaching itself to yours? That the nutrients somehow pick up the bean’s altered genetic code and transmit it to you? Do you even know how much of a soybean’s DNA is left intact by the time it reaches your plate? How much DNA do you suppose is in the oil of a rapeseed seed? These are the questions you need to be able to answer if you want to make claims like yours.
I am surprised to see a defense of food companies who are putting profit over the health of our country. Defense of GMO foods means you think it is okay for a company to sell you an altered version of a food product because it costs less to produce. In almost all cases, the packaging of processed food costs more than the food itself. And the marketing far more.
Studies conducted on GMO food have been paid for by the companies themselves to allay the fears of the public and to keep the profits flowing. An altered food by definition does not contain the original nutrients or structure. GM soybeans contain 75% more estrogens, which is one of the reasons why young girls gain menses at ages as early as six, and young boys are developing breasts. Do some research and you will find that Europe will not buy our meat because it is so loaded with antibiotics and other toxins. Countries such as Sweden and Denmark have ruled that food production is essential to public health and is putting the welfare of the people ahead of corporate profits by outlawing GMO foods and insisting that animals raised for meat and milk must be pastured.
Yet in this country, salmon crossed with a rat–this is true–which grows twice as large twice as fast, will coming soon to your table. Just one of many frankensteins agribusiness wants you to consume. Unless people stop defending the rights of companies to place profit above health, this trend will continue.
So yes, the Hellman’s change is sad, but not just because adding sugar changes the taste of an old favorite. Ask what else has been added besides sugar, because in every case, sugar is added to mask the taste of something else, something chemical, and used to add bulk to a product, making it that much cheaper to produce. I commend those out there who have decided to make their own mayonnaise. With some experimentation, it is easy to create a recipe that tastes every bit as good. And you know what goes in it. By adding a few tablespoons of whey, the mayonnaise will last for months.
This is not a militant hippie vegan food debate. It’s a debate about health and the power of the individual to demand safe, healthy food. Our best weapon is our dollar.
Trader Joe’s Real Mayonaise :
I just tried it next to the new Hellmans . . .
TJ = old Hellmans, yeah!
or anyway, alot closer than the what they’re selling now