The Additions That Will Make American Mayo Taste Japanese

Japanese mayonnaise has taken the world by storm in recent years, with Kewpie mayo specifically leading the charge. The different recipe in Japanese mayo creates a similar yet distinctly different taste from Western brands like Hellmann's and might even make you see mayonnaise in a whole new light.

However, the Kewpie takeover doesn't mean that the sauce is available all across America yet. And while some in the United States adore Japanese Kewpie mayo, many are cursed to miss out. Luckily for them, even if Japanese mayonnaise isn't available at their local grocery store, a homemade alternative is not hard to make and can satisfy your craving for Japanese mayo.

To find out more, The Takeout spoke to Namiko Hirasawa Chen, creator of the popular food blog Just One Cookbook, to discuss a way to enjoy the taste of Japanese mayonnaise without actually having to find it on your store shelves. As a result, Chen was kind enough to explain that it only takes two additional ingredients to transform your favorite Western mayonnaise into a condiment that tastes just like the Japanese variation.

If you've tried Japanese mayo before, you'll know that the one thing that differentiates it from the American variant is its sweetness. So, to make your American mayonnaise achieve a similar level of sweetness, you should add sugar and rice vinegar (or rice wine vinegar) to the condiment. While sugar isn't present in most Japanese mayonnaise recipes that are made from scratch, its presence in relation to the rice vinegar will give your mayo the distinctly sweeter taste that you are looking for.

Chen explained how to get these desired results, stating, "To make American mayo more like Japanese mayo, you can try adding some sugar and rice vinegar in a pinch... For 1 cup of American mayonnaise (I use Hellmann's Mayonnaise), whisk in 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar."

Chen also notes that, because Japanese mayo is only created with egg yolk and not the whole egg, this modification to American mayo won't taste exactly like authentic Japanese mayo. However, it will still taste pretty darn close. Beyond that, Chen added that this DIY Japanized mayo can be further altered to resemble spicy Japanese mayo in a similarly simple fashion. "For Japanese spicy mayo, just mix 4 parts Japanese mayo with 1 part sriracha sauce and a splash of lime juice... It couldn't be easier!"