Our Immersion Blender TestMayonnaise
Immersion blenders may be the most convenient tools when you’re making emulsified sauces. However, not all hand-held machines do the job well. Some may have difficulty powering through solid ingredients like raw nuts, while others will ruin your countertop by splattering sticky ingredients everywhere. That’s why this test was designed — we wanted to determine which immersion blender was a true pro at meal prep.
Why The Test Matters
There are several immersion blenders that do not come with a whisk attachment — a specialized tool for preparing emulsified sauces. Can such blenders really excel at making salad dressings as advertised? This test showed us the truth.
For those with the whisk attachment, the process of making mayonnaise helped us better understand their accessories in terms of efficiency and reliability.
You might wonder why we choose mayonnaise for this emulsifying test. It’s because mayonnaise is the easiest sauce to emulsify. If the blender doesn't create a uniform suspension of oil and egg yolks, it’ll probably have even more trouble with other sauces.
Testing Recipe
- 3 egg yolks
- 240ml canola oil
Testing Procedure
For the mayo whisking test, we initially whisked together two egg yolks and 150ml oil in a 24-oz vessel using either the blending shaft or a whisk attachment, depending on the blender’s accessory set.
Only units with whisk attachments passed that initial test. The remaining blenders barely reached the egg yolks and left us with a jumbled mixture. The blending wands simply aren’t made for such small volumes of ingredients. We do suspect, though, that the results might have been better if we used a narrower blending container.
At that point we decided to modify the recipe to include three egg yolks and 240ml oil. Thankfully, this amount alleviated the problem.
Unlike the soup and smoothie tests, we didn’t add all the ingredients into the beaker at the same time. Instead, we whisked the yolks at the slowest setting first and then slowly poured in the oil.
To avoid broken mayonnaise, we didn’t increase the speed to the highest setting until the oil started emulsifying. In this case we also didn’t stop the blender periodically even when it reached the maximum run time.
During the procedure, we also slowly raised the blending shaft or the whisk attachment to the top of the mixture and back down to incorporate all the ingredients.
Scoring Scale
The overall rating of each blender was the average of two equally-weighted section scores awarded on a scale out of 10. The section scores included: blending time and blended result.
Emulsifying Time Score
The blending time score was allocated based on how long each blender took to yield a batch of mayonnaise. Here's our breakdown of how this score was determined:
Score Breakdown
- 90 seconds or less: A good immersion blender shouldn’t take long to yield a batch of mayonnaise. The reasonable amount of blending time should be around one minute and a half. That’s why we would award 10 points for any item that passed its test within that duration.
- 91-100 seconds: 9 points
- 101-110 seconds: 8 points
- 111-120 seconds: 7 points
- 121-130 seconds: 6 points
- 131-140 seconds: 5 points
- 141-150 seconds: 4 points
- 151-160 seconds: 3 points
- 161-170 seconds: 2 points
- 171-180 seconds: 1 point
- 181 seconds or more: 0 point
Blended Result Score
We awarded the blended result score of each blender out of 10 points based only on its texture which is always fell into one of three variants:
- Velvety: We gave 9.5-10 points for mayonnaise that were silky, creamy, and spreadable.
- Smooth: This mayonnaise is emulsified harmoniously but doesn’t look as creamy as the velvety one. We awarded them 7.5 - 8.5 points.
- Thick or Thin: If the mayonnaisehad a curdled-looking or slightly streaky with visible ribbons of oil, we allocated 7 points or less to it
- Broken/Separated/Runny: We awarded no points for immersion blenders that failed to bond and emulsion the yolk and oil.
