Post #132084 by freddiefreelance on Tue, Dec 21, 2004 8:18 AM

It sounds horrible, but you're supposed to leave homemade Mayonaise out of the refrigerator for several hours after finishing it to allow the lemon juice to kill the bacteria. This's the same reason you can leave Ceviche out, and the vinegar does the same in Chicken Adobo.

Bong, how long are we talking about to finish a tub? If it's just over the afternoon go ahead & leave it out with some saran wrap on it to keep out flies, leaves & small children's fingers, if we're talking over night you could probably get away with leaving it out if it's covered. If we're talking more than 2 days you should keep it in the fridge overnight & take it out an hour or so before you want to eat some. You can put the jar in hot but not boiling water after it's been out of the fridge for a while to speed up the warming process. If you're taking a week to finish the jar the bean dip'll start looking like old dried up spackle, you'll want to add a little water to moisten the dip, nuke it for a little under 30 seconds & stir it up good.