25 Ways You Should Be Using Mayonnaise

Grilled cheese is only the beginning.
Crispy Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Astrid Chastka, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell

1. Slather it on grilled cheese

One of the great historical developments of the past several years was humanity's discovery that mayonnaise, rather than butter, provides the true path toward a crunchy, golden grilled cheese sandwich.

2. Make ranch dressing

What's ranch dressing? Really, it's little more than mayo, buttermilk, and whichever herbs you want. It's devastatingly easy and well worth the (little) time it takes.

3. Apply the grilled-cheese principle to poultry...

Those sandwiches aren't the only thing that get a great exterior thanks to a generous slathering of mayo—the condiment is also the key to perfect crispy skin on roast chicken and turkey.

4. ...and potatoes

Not to mention potatoes: faced with a glut of leftover potato salad, one Epi staffer discovered last year that she could just stick the whole mess in an oven. The oil in the mayonnaise-based dressing, combined with the high-heat oven, yielded crispy, easy roasted potatoes.

5. Make potato salad

Of course, if you're dealing with potato salad leftovers, you'll have to have made potato salad first—the old-fashioned kind, with mayonnaise, celery, hard-boiled eggs, and pickles. Here's a good place to start.

6. Whip up a quick aioli

Okay, technically it's not exactly aioli. But a dollop of storebought mayo + finely minced garlic + a little lemon juice and maybe some herbs = a lightning-fast, totally unimpeachable sauce for fish, salad, or blanched or roasted vegetables.

7. Bake a cake

Chocolate mayonnaise cake is the oldest trick in the book, but there's a reason it's held on so long: the moisture the mayo lends the cake is unparalleled.

8. Add literally anything to it

And find yourself in possession of an amazing sandwich spread or dipping sauce for raw veggies. Sriracha? Great. Chopped pickles? Primo. Curry powder? The world is your oyster, buddy. (Also: Old Bay, smoked paprika, any kind of citrus, Dijon mustard, chopped anchovies. I could go on and on.)

9. Make spinach-artichoke dip.

Duh.

10. Slather it on corn

Mayo, grilled corn on the cob, and a couple other ingredients and you've got yourself elotes, my friend.

11. Put it on a turkey burger

You know what's great on a turkey or veggie or blended burger? Mayonnaise. You know what else is? A mayonnaise-based sauce—such as you would find on a Big Mac. Here's our version.

12. Make a tomato sandwich

The culinary innovations of the American South have been many, but I defy you to find something more simply satisfying than the tomato sandwich: nothing more than white bread, the very best tomatoes you can find, and mayonnaise (Duke's, if you please).

13. Make that other kind of tomato sandwich

Try to imagine a BLT without mayonnaise. Not possible, right?

14. Make tomato pie

In which the Southern sandwich principle is applied to an immaculate savory pie, filled with tomatoes, cheese, mayo, and herbs and baked to a golden, bubbling brown.

15. Stir it into mashed potatoes

Butter and dairy will give you rich, sumptuous mashed potatoes. Duh: so will mayonnaise.

16. Have it with moules frites

Two ways: you dip your fries in it, of course. But as Max Falkowitz at Serious Eats points out, you can also whisk mayo into the wine and garlic sauce; it brings "creaminess and body without too much extra weight." Play with it as a sauce thickener in place of butter in general: you might be pleasantly surprised.

17. Make deviled eggs

Another old classic that's stuck around for a reason.

18. Have a taste-off

Mayonnaise can inspire fierce brand loyalty: are you a Duke's devotee or more of a Hellmann's head? What about the new, shockingly good vegan versions, Just Mayo and Fabanaise? There's only one way to figure out which is best, and that's to get a ton of French fries and have a taste-off.

19. Make one of the classic sandwiches

Egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad—the thing that they have in common is that they're nothing without a dollop of mayo stirred in.

20. Or make one of the classier sandwiches

I'm talking about lobster rolls.

21. Make pimento cheese

With sliced baguette or crackers, the perfect party food.

22. Give your meat a good crust

Egg helps breading stick to meat and fish, as everybody knows, but you know what else does? That's right: mayonnaise.

23. Make slaw

We've covered ranch and the sandwich salads, but mayo's use as a dressing doesn't stop there. Who could forget slaw?

23. Put together whatever this marvelous creation is

25. Make your own

I mean, if you want to. No pressure.