mayonnaise

It's been a long time since I've had Kewpie mayo but I remember all Japanese mayo tasting much different than Western mayo. I think Western mayo tends to be thicker since it's used more as spread and sometimes dip, while Japanese mayo maybe used more for sauces.

I think in general there are 2 camps for American mayo, Krafts or Best Foods/Hellman's. I like both but they taste completely different. From all the cooking shows I've seen, I think Best Food's is one the best store bought American mayos.

Dear all,

I can agree that Japanese mayo and European mayo really taste different. European one is more thicker and more sour than Japanese. Japanese is much softer in taste. Now when I've understood the difference I won't probably use European any more. Japanese is so much better.

From Australia, I just noticed that Kraft has now got a fuller taste, more yellowish colour mayonnaise which taste much like the European mayonnaises (Belgian, French,etc).

Nice stuff.

Actually I have had various types of Japanese mayonnaises other than Kewpie. I don't know the name, but some of them taste better than Kewpie - surprisingly. As least not as salty :(


And Best Food Mayo made in America is tastier and less salty than the ones made in Canada for some reason.

Can anyone confirm this or is it just my head? Large difference to me.. although I'm trusting my palate memory

I absolutely love Kewpie mayonnaise! It reminds me of my two wonderful tours in Japan. I frequented a local shop that specialized in BLT sandwiches and could never recreate the taste until I discovered Kewpie mayo on Amazon.com.

Q.P. have a strong acid taste. I like Kenko better than Q.P.

I'm sorry but I must agree wholeheartedly. Ever since I moved to Oz from South America, this has been one of the many culinary culture shocks.

Read the ingredients labels. Sugar/Cane sugar is the third or fourth top ingredient in ALL Aussie mayoes (prominence is indicated in 'ingredients' lists in order of appearance, from most prominent to least).

I haven't tried asian mayoes, but I'll give them a shot, actually I bumped onto this board looking for the existance of ANY Aussie unsweetened mayo.

Only answer so far has been making my own or, when too lazy to bother, using the American S&W brand mayo.

I think American mayo tastes sweeter than Japanese kind. I actually read in an American paper that they added sugar to make it suitable to Americans' taste.

I use a brand of egg mayo called S & W which is the closest thing I've ever tasted to Kewpie mayo. It makes great sushi & awesome potato salad. Hellman's & Best Food Mayos are sometimes available in my local Woolworths store in the International Food section, but the S & W stuff is always on the shelf with the other mayos. Steer clear of the "light" egg mayos - they're disgusting!!

Not only that, but Kewpie actually sells an overseas version to overseas market. You could get it in Australia in the Asian food section of most supermarkets. The bottle looks different.

The taste - cannot tell you. I haven't bought any Kewpie recently I'm starting to think its taste is too strong and too salty as a mayonnaise for me, at least the real Japanese version is. There are so many other brands though to try.

I've enjoyed reading the great trans-Pacific mayonnaise debate. I have to admit I come down in the middle - each has it's use. Which brings me to reason I found this thread. I recently moved from the land of you-can-buy-almost-anything (the US) to Italy which doesn't seem to have much use for cuisines from other cultures. Therefor nothing gives me greater pleasure than to introduce my new friends to the wonders of American, Mexican, Indian, Thai, Lebanese, and Japanese cooking. I do the best I can since it is difficult to find a lot of ingredients but since my guest really have little experience with these other foods, they are almost never disappointed. One of the foods I�fve by dying to make is sushi. I finally found a good source for salmon and tuna (possibly augmented by some wonderful local fish) and am ready to go. Sashimi is easy, as is nagiri, but making sushi is a little more complex since to obtain the wide variety of type requires more ingredients. One of the many ingredients I�fm missing is Japanese mayonnaise. As most everyone in this forum has said, it is a different animal. Since none of the stores locally (Rimini Italy) carry it I thought I could make it. I can�ft, however, find a recipe. Can anyone here help me? Or at least point me in the direction of a source? Several hours of searching the web have only yielded sushi recipes and egg mayonnaise recipes.
Thank you for your help
John T – spicy tunaless in Rimini

La MAHONESA es una salsa española, de Mahón (Islas Baleares)cuyos ingredientes son: huevos, aceite de oliva, sal y al gusto vinagre ó limón. Dentro de las salsas comerciales, mejor que la Kraft ó Hellmans es la salsa mahonesa ''Carbonell''

Real mayonnaise is made with eggs, oil, vinegar, pepper, mustard and salt. The Japanese can call their mixture whatever they like, I suppose. But it's not the real stuff.

Japanese mayonnaise [whatever it's made of...] is to me a sweeter mayonnaise than ours in the U.S. I like it a lot more than American mayonnaise, even on American dishes.

Real mayonnaise is made with eggs, oil, vinegar, pepper, mustard and salt. The Japanese can call their mixture whatever they like, I suppose. But it's not the real stuff.

I have lived in Central Europe, North America and Japan, and tried many types of mayonnaise in all these regions. And I am familiar with the taste of "real" hand made mayonnaise.

Of all the factory made types of mayonnaise, I found Kewpie mayonnaise to resemble "real" mayonnaise the most. The factory made types of mayonnaise I had in North America and Europe, tasted much less similar to the "real" mayonnaise.

Certainly it is not the same as hand made mayonnaise, but Japanese factory made mayonnaise comes relatively close to it compared to the factory made mayonnaise sold in other countries.

"Ajinomoto Premium Select" tastes closest to my idea of "standard" mayo. I've also tried the low fat version, but classic tastes much better.

I agree with SpanishWine.
The Ajinomoto mayo is very good indeed. Better than Kewpie in my subjective opinion because kewpie is slightly too salty to my liking and not enough egg taste.

I just came to Japan from Canada. I bought some mayo at the store the other, and I have to say when I tried it, I nearly got sick. It was almost as if it had gone bad, I threw it out thinking that it must have been on the shelf too long, or something. I bought another bottle, different brand and it had the same effect. I'm afraid to try again!

I actually like kewpie mayo better. I think it's a little sweeter and has a thicker consistency than american mayo.
I love the mayo they put in the Teriyaki beef burgers from MOS burger (i'm from singapore not japan by the way )

Well American mayo and Japanese Mayo is so different when I say I am buying Mayo I refer to any brand from anywhere (admittedly mostly from America) but I'll say 'I want to get that Japanese Mayo' when I need to taste anything good. So, American mayo is like the drab and plain sister and Japanese Mayo is like the glamorous sister who at the same time has lots of character going for it.

My favourite use of Japanese Mayo:

1) in any sandwich (you don't need to coat the whole thing, try to use it as you would the amount of mustards)
2) mix with some light soy sauce and dip it with grilled shishamo.

I'm from Australia, living in Japan...

I do not eat mayonnaise in Australia because I do not like it!!!!

But I love Japanese (Kewpie) mayonnaise!!!! You can get it in Australia in some Japanese food shops, and it tastes just the same as it does in Japan.