diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb b/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb
index 8061abaf46..f9e8761bf3 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb
@@ -29,9 +29,7 @@ class << ENV
     %w{CC CXX LD CPP OBJC MAKE
       CFLAGS CXXFLAGS OBJCFLAGS OBJCXXFLAGS LDFLAGS CPPFLAGS
       MACOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET SDKROOT
-      CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
-      HOMEBREW_CCCFG HOMEBREW_DEP_PREFIXES
-      MAKEFLAGS MAKEJOBS}.
+      CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH}.
       each{ |x| delete(x) }
     delete('CDPATH') # avoid make issues that depend on changing directories
     delete('GREP_OPTIONS') # can break CMake
@@ -51,7 +49,7 @@ class << ENV
     ENV['LD'] = 'ld'
     ENV['CPP'] = 'cpp'
     ENV['MAKE'] = 'make'
-    ENV['MAKEFLAGS'] ||= "-j#{Hardware.processor_count}"
+    ENV['MAKEFLAGS'] ||= "-j#{determine_make_jobs}"
     ENV['PATH'] = determine_path
     ENV['PKG_CONFIG_PATH'] = determine_pkg_config_path
     ENV['HOMEBREW_CC'] = determine_cc
@@ -149,6 +147,14 @@ class << ENV
     paths.to_path_s
   end
 
+  def determine_make_jobs
+    if (j = ENV['HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS'].to_i) < 1
+      Hardware.processor_count
+    else
+      j
+    end
+  end
+
   public
 
 ### NO LONGER NECESSARY OR NO LONGER SUPPORTED