Baconnaise
Note: Read about making animal-fat mayonnaise for a full recap on the science behind these recipes. The jarred mayonnaise added to the food processor at the start makes it easier to create a more stable emulsion. If you are an experienced mayonnaise-maker who has no problems with mayonnaise breaking on you, you may omit the jarred mayonnaise. The mayonnaise can also be made in a bowl with a whisk. This mayonnaise can be made with vegetable oil in place of the rendered animal fat - though flavor will suffer.
- makes about 2 cups baconnaise -
Ingredients
3/4 cup rendered bacon fat, melted
3/4 cup canola oil
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (optional)
1 tablespoon water, plus more to correct consistency
lemon juice to taste
salt and pepper to taste
4 strips crisp bacon, crumbled
2 scallions, white and green parts, finely sliced (optional)
Procedure
1. Combine bacon fat and canola oil in 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Whisk to combine.
2. Add egg yolks, Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, and water to bowl of food processor. Run processor for 5 seconds to combine. Scrape down sides of processor bowl with rubber spatula. With processor running, slowly drizzle fat into bowl in a thin, steady stream, stopping and scraping down sides as necessary. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste, and adjust consistency with water until thick, smooth, and creamy, but not mouth-coatingly waxy. Stir in cumbled bacon bits and sliced scallions, if using. Store in refrigerator in air-tight container for up to two weeks.
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5 Comments:
this sounds amazing
rprprprp at 11:09PM on 10/24/09
So, the Zingerman's recipe for this that was posted last month (it was a "Cook the Book" recipe) uses all bacon fat (but considerably more egg yolk and lemon juice). Your discussion of balancing saturated and unsaturated fats was while experimenting with the beef fat mayo, but I understand that the balance in all of these recipes is in reference to the emulsion issues. Did you do any bacon mayo experiments with just bacon fat alone? If so, how did that turn out flavor-wise and emulsion-wise as compared to the beef mayo?
I completely agree with you that this will take off and become the next It condiment... I imagine casual-dining restaurants serving "smoked applewood bacon aioli" and grocery store shelves stocked with baconnaise.
For me, I just really want to make it for Thanksgiving leftovers sandwiches. I invited my whole family out to my place in Brooklyn this year, from all across the country, and to quote my brother's simple email in response to when I sent him the Zingerman's recipe last month: "prepare it and they will come."
semarr at 1:04PM on 10/27/09
@semarr
Yeah... I looked at that recipe with a fair deal of skepticism. The science behind it is all wrong. For instance, the emulsifiers in egg yolks work much better at room temperature, when in that recipe, they specifically say chilled. They also recommend dumping all the fat into the egg yolks at once.
Without having actually made the recipe and followed it, my inclination is to say that there's no way that the baconnaise forms a true emulsion in that recipe. More likely, it is whipped, chilled bacon fat enhanced with egg yolks. It gets it's thickness from the crystallization of the saturated bacon fat, not from the oil in water emulsion that a true mayonnaise has. Not that that means it can't be delicious, only that it's *not* a mayonnaise in the true culinary or scientific sense of the word.
I did do experiments with bacon fat alone, and it has some of the same problems as the beef fat - difficult to form a stable emulsion. You don't have to dilute it quite as much as the beef fat, but you still need to dilute it some for it to work well.
On a side note:
When are restaurants gonna stop trying to be fancy by using the word aioli when they really mean mayonnaise? It really annoys me. An aioli is a very specific condiment that does not necessarily even have egg yolks in it. I've seen things called "aioli" on menus that don't even contain garlic in the, ferchrissake! It's my book, it's worse than calling any small hamburger a slider. Just man up, and call your sauce what it is: flavored mayonnaise!
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at 4:56PM on 10/27/09
@Kenji OH MY GOD, I KNOW. Just so you know, I registered on SE specifically to leave this comment, despite being a casual reader for a couple months now. The aioli thing pisses me off to no end. Worst of all: calling it aioli if it's not garlicky! If more people mentioned this I'd probably have a lot less annoyedness-buildup about it.
roula at 10:16PM on 10/31/09
Ah, thanks for the reply and comments on the other recipe. Emulsions are new to me, and I'm looking forward to making my first trial run of this baconnaise soon.
I actually never knew the true definition of aioli, until I just looked it up, but when the word started popping up everywhere, I thought there must be something amok. I'd put money on there being a menu in NYC that offers sliders slathered in aioli.
Actually, why don't I just look up the Stanton Social menu. Yep. There it is:
Grilled Cheese Slider jasper hill farms cheddar, house cured jalapeño bacon, fried green tomato & lemon aioli
Ah well, sounds tasty anyway!semarr at 12:51PM on 11/02/09