I grew up in a home where Light Miracle Whip was a constant staple in the fridge {my mom has always loved her “light” products but I always stocked our fridge with regular Miracle Whip, unless of course mayonnaise was on sale, then mayonnaise it was!}. I always thought mayonnaise and Miracle Whip were interchangeable.
In my defense, their makeup is practically identical. Miracle Whip contains the same ingredients as mayonnaise: eggs, soybean oil, vinegar but there are a few more spices and additional ingredients that mayo doesn’t contain. Aside from that, I just thought if a recipe called for mayo you could sub in Miracle Whip and vice versa.
As an adult with a more refined palate {ha!}, I now see the error of my ways! Their ingredients might be similar but the taste is so different, with Miracle Whip being much sweeter, spicier, and almost more acidic tasting than mayonnaise. If you sub it into a recipe, you’ll certainly be able to taste a difference!
But what makes mayo, mayo, and Miracle Whip, Miracle Whip? Are they classified as the same thing? What makes them so different?
Well to start, Miracle Whip isn’t considered mayonnaise at all because it doesn’t meet the requirements to be mayo {the USDA requires anything labeled mayonnaise to contain a minimum of 65% vegetable oil by weight and Miracle Whip doesn’t cut it!}. Plus, Miracle Whip has added sugar, paprika, and garlic powder, unlike mayo. So Miracle Whip is it’s own thing, it’s own brand. It’s a mayo-like product that differs too much from traditional mayo to be called mayo.
So Kraft came up with a new name for a new product that took the place of mayo during The Great Depression, when real mayo was too expensive for people to afford. People loved it and kept buying it, long after the Depression ended and even as the price of Miracle Whip climbed and matched that of mayo.
So now I’m curious what YOU keep in your fridge. Do you use both? Are you loyal to one or the other? Do you loath one and love the other? Does it depend on the recipe? Have your tastes changed through the years and now you dislike Miracle Whip and opt for real mayo {I know many friends in that category!}.
Let’s talk mayo…
~Mavis
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