Glenwood Meats (available in many stores about town, we still have no idea what part of Greater Victoria you're in...) is often very good. I like their sausages.

If you don't throw out the rest of a jar of Hellman's, why on earth would you throw out the homemade (in a few days)?

I DO throw jars of mayo out quite a bit...I had BAD food poisoning once and ever since then I have trouble with leftovers, or things in my fridge that I'm not sure how old they are, etc.....Crazy, huh?
True, though...a jar of Hellman's will sit in my fridge for a couple of weeks before I chuck it...If I made my own mayo...it would be chucked out in a few days. Makes no sense. My mind probably considers it a "leftover."

Personally I think there is a huge diffrence in the shelf life of store bought and homemade. Store bought is proccessed in a way that makes it safe to keep for weeks, even a couple months in the fridge. Homemade, with raw non pasturized egg would probably only be good for a couple days. Personally I would not risk the food poisening from a rancid raw egg.

Pasteurized egg product is easy to get, if that's the concern.

FYI, more food poisoning comes from the carby component of things like potato salad than ever came from mayonnaise, statistically. The bit of acid in the mayo is what keeps it pretty darn foodsafe (and the oil).

So when being cautious in the leftover department, keep a CLOSE eye on the starchy/carby items, they're usually the first to go. Even low carby is still carby enough to provide food for hungry bacteria. Second-most risky is the protein. The inside of an egg is usually quite sterile, actually, but using pasteurized product should take care of that concern.

Jude, just for my education, doesn't the vinegar in homemade mayo help act as a preservative? I've kept it for at least 2 weeks (maybe longer) and never thought twice about it! My biggest problem was making it taste like Miracle Whip!!! Mind you, I grew up when no-one knew that raw eggs could be dangerous so we drank raw-egg eggnogs made with raw, unpasteurized milk regularly - to me, that's comfort food, especially when you feel a tad under the weather!! It's beginning to look like the "good old days" really WERE the GOOD OLD DAYS in many ways!!!!

Hmmmm ..... ain't progress wonderful? Damn .... have I outlived myself??? I hope not, cause I ain't leavin' yet!!!!

Glenda

Yes, indeed, Ms. Glenda, the vinegar IS the "bit of acid" in the mayo. And no, you're not done yet, trust me!

I personally (though a survivor of food poisoning events, chili at the Legion IIRC) think the whole egg paranoia thing is just that, paranoia. Our immune systems, to a reasonable degree, need to be "use it or lose it"! IMNSHO! And if eggs and chickens and beef and pork was raised and processed (read butchered) in the old fashioned way instead of the whole jam-them-in corporate farm way, the foodstuffs would be a LOT safer by the time we get it.

For a laugh-and-cry view of this one of my personal pet giant size peeves, go here: themeatrix.com

The Foodsafe approach is half about human health and half about commercial liability.

Sigh.