Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato Sandwich with Homemade Mayonnaise

As you may have read on the previous post, I went a bit tomato crazy in August.  It’s just so hard not to, with such gorgeous specimens available.  And the flavors are amazing.  I wondered if, using only Greenmarket produce, how would these be on a BLT.  I’m not a giant fan of BLTs, mostly because I find that people put globs of mayonnaise on it, which I find kind of icky. 

Mayonnaise is one of those food items that I have a conflicted relationship with. The smell of a knife having been used to spread mayo and left in the kitchen sink makes my stomach turn.  I can’t stand the way it makes bread all spongy or the sight of oozy white stuff in tuna or chicken salad.  Mayo on fries, don’t even get me started on how repulsive that is to me.

Maybe I would change my mind, if I made the condiment myself, I thought.  I looked up a few recipes, read a few sets of instructions, and thought, “I can do this, easy-peasy.”  Well, it wasn’t so simple.  I couldn’t seem to get it to emulsify.  Twice, I tried this and was left with a golden, liquidy mess.  How could this be?

 

After the first attempt, I read up some more online about the technical process.  So, I started to make it again, this time, paying extra attention to incorporating the oil drop by drop, as instructed.  I vigorously whisked the ingredients, as that was also highlighted as a possible point of failure.  It failed again.  I was starting to take this personally.  It is a condiment, for heaven's sake.  How can I be defeated by a sauce? 

In my frustration and as my stomach growled, I decided to put together a BBLT.  Yes, that’s not a typo, I made a Bacon-Bacon-Lettuce-and-Tomato sandwich, on toasted farmer’s market bread.  After all the vigorous whisking of the mayonnaise for naught, I decided that I could then transfer the unused saturated fat calories into extra bacon.  Then, I did what many of us do when looking for answers to kitchen conundrums.  I called my mother for her advice. 

“Have you every made homemade mayonnaise.”  

“Sure, I have,” she said.

“Arghh, I can’t get it to work,” I replied.

“Did you use an egg yolk?”

“Yes.”

“Did you add the oil slloowwly, drop by drop?  You have to add it a drop at a time in the beginning.”

“Yayes.”

“Well, then, you’re just not doing it right,” she responded.  “I don’t know what to tell you.  It works for me.  We’ll work on it.”

My mom is a great cook.  I’ve learned lots at her side.  On occasion, we have even cooked together, especially when she visits me in New York where there’s also great food shopping adventures that goes along with the cooking.  I was not surprised to hear that she’s successfully made mayonnaise.  So, on her visit up here during the holiday weekend, she watched me make mayonnaise again.  It sort of worked.  We ended up adding too much oil and the sauce started to separate at the end.  I decided to give up the ghost at that point.  Maybe mayonnaise and I were just not to be….[to be continued]

Buon appetito!

 

*Kitchen Witch Tip

I didn't find the original FlameGuard pan handle cover that I'd bought years ago; however, I did find these similar ones that say they work with cast iron pans.  It’s nice to find an easy way to avoid searing one’s hand on a hot handle and it has made several previously pain-in-the-neck pans more useable.

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I've included a link to these Pan Handle Covers that are available on Amazon.  As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases via links that are included in this post.  These earnings enable me to continue to maintain this website.