Mayonnaise Makes an Excellent Egg Wash

A couple of days ago, I was making my beloved broccoli stem tart, and I realised I was out of eggs, and therefore did not have anything with which to make an egg wash. I cursed my lack of fridge awareness and stomped around the kitchen, unwilling to go to the grocery store, but not seeing any way around it — and then I remembered: There are always eggs in the mayonnaise.

Do not yell at me! This is very smart and logical! A lot of people hate mayonnaise as a condiment, due to its colour and texture, and I get that! But even if you detest it as a spread for bread, the emulsion of egg, oil, and vinegar can do wonders as a (virtually undetectable) ingredient. (If you’re squicked out by eggs, oil, vinegar being in your food, simply because they were emulsified beforehand, I urge you to grow up!)

Using mayo as an egg wash is easy: Just brush it on. A thin, translucent layer is plenty. On a scale from “egg white only” to “egg yolk only,” this wash clocks in as a dead ringer for the yolk-only approach, thanks to the little bit of sugar present in the condiment (and the eggs, obviously). If you’re worried about tasting the mayo, please do not be. The scant teaspoon I used for the edges of my broccoli stem tart was undetectable to me but, if you have some sort of super-taster situation going on, the worst thing you’ll taste is a tiny hint of sweet acidity.

Best of all, using mayo means you don’t have to use a tiny bit of egg, and then toss the rest down the drain, meaning you can save your eggs for frying and eating. (Are there people who re-purpose their egg wash eggs into a scramble? Sound off in the comments!)