Mayonnaise has improved your quality of life, whether or not you’ve chosen to accept it. An unsung condiment hero, it’s the key to golden brown grilled cheese, the most special ingredient in special sauce, and the lazy shortcut to a lush Caesar dressing. And the highest form of mayo, I’d argue, is Kewpie mayo.
What is Kewpie mayo?
While Kewpie has become increasingly popular in the U.S. in recent years (a trend only bolstered by Emily Mariko’s viral salmon rice TikTok), Japanese kitchens have stocked this luscious condiment since 1925. It’s not only smoother, richer, and more fun to use (squeeze bottle > jar) than your average mayo, but it’s also packed with much, much more eggy umami flavor. If it sounds contradictory that Kewpie has both the tangy-sweetness and the savory undertone that are absent in Hellmann’s and the like, you’ll just have to taste it to understand. I can’t get enough of it in poke bowls, atop okonomiyaki, and anywhere else a dollop of mayo is welcome.
What makes Japanese mayo different?
While American mayonnaise uses whole eggs, Kewpie mayo incorporates yolks and yolks alone for a yellow color, an almost custardy texture, and distinctly rich and fatty mouthfeel. The egg yolks—precisely four in every 500-gram squeeze bottle—are an important source of amino acids that give Kewpie its signature savory taste and, to state the obvious, egg-forward taste.
To balance out all that fatty goodness, Kewpie has the perfect amount of acid. While Hellmann’s and other American brands use sharp and pungent distilled white vinegar, Kewpie relies on a blend of vinegar—rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and distilled vinegar, for example—for added complexity, tang, and natural sweetness.
