The Meat Thread

[CrimsonNBlue]

So, you're a ketchup on a hot dog guy???

[twocoach]

Yeah, I don't mind mayo on a burger, but the standard should not be mayo.

While I'm on this topic, barbeque sauce doesn't belong on a burger. Those BBQ hamburgers at restaurants are gross.

BBQ sauce belongs on virtually anything that can carry a condiment. Mayo, on the other hand, tastes like a condiment for people who dont like taste. It's just lube to choke down an otherwise dry turkey sandwich on plain bread.

Mayo is simply whipped fat. Every time I eat it I picture walking around Sam's Club, grossed out as 300 pound people pushing carts full of 4 pound mayo vats and 5 pound barrels or cheese puffs. Even talking about this makes me want to go work out.

[twocoach]

I'm slowly coming back around to mustard. I had such a disdain for it for a long time.

But I'm putting it on hamburgers and all that more recently now.

I like weird mustards but avoid plain yellow mustard. It's like ketchup vs. BBQ sauce. Ketchup and yellow mustard are too plain so I leave it for the kids.

[jfish26]

Yeah, I don't mind mayo on a burger, but the standard should not be mayo.

While I'm on this topic, barbeque sauce doesn't belong on a burger. Those BBQ hamburgers at restaurants are gross.

BBQ sauce belongs on virtually anything that can carry a condiment. Mayo, on the other hand, tastes like a condiment for people who dont like taste. It's just lube to choke down an otherwise dry turkey sandwich on plain bread.

Mayo is simply whipped fat. Every time I eat it I picture walking around Sam's Club, grossed out as 300 pound people pushing carts full of 4 pound mayo vats and 5 pound barrels or cheese puffs. Even talking about this makes me want to go work out.

I also like barbecue sauce on most things, burgers included.

[NewtonHawk11]

So, you're a ketchup on a hot dog guy???

Don't eat much hot dogs. But usually when I do it's relish only. Very rarely do I do ketchup on a hot dog or bratwurst.

[pdub]

The only thing i'll use plain yellow mustard on is a hot dog.
I need a spicy mustard/brown mustard for a burger.

[CrimsonNBlue]

So, you're a ketchup on a hot dog guy???

Don't eat much hot dogs. But usually when I do it's relish only. Very rarely do I do ketchup on a hot dog or bratwurst.

We good.

[pdub]

[twocoach]

Yeah, I don't mind mayo on a burger, but the standard should not be mayo.

While I'm on this topic, barbeque sauce doesn't belong on a burger. Those BBQ hamburgers at restaurants are gross.

BBQ sauce belongs on virtually anything that can carry a condiment. Mayo, on the other hand, tastes like a condiment for people who dont like taste. It's just lube to choke down an otherwise dry turkey sandwich on plain bread.

Mayo is simply whipped fat. Every time I eat it I picture walking around Sam's Club, grossed out as 300 pound people pushing carts full of 4 pound mayo vats and 5 pound barrels or cheese puffs. Even talking about this makes me want to go work out.

I also like barbecue sauce on most things, burgers included.

Anything that carries BBQ sauce into my system is good.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Mayo is simply whipped fat. Every time I eat it I picture walking around Sam's Club, grossed out as 300 pound people pushing carts full of 4 pound mayo vats and 5 pound barrels or cheese puffs. Even talking about this makes me want to go work out.

Mayo and aioli are the dipping sauce of choice in many parts of Asia where people are much skinnier than Americans.

They're also popular as a dipping sauce in Europe, where there are many fatties, so I don't really know my point.

[twocoach]

So, you're a ketchup on a hot dog guy???

Don't eat much hot dogs. But usually when I do it's relish only. Very rarely do I do ketchup on a hot dog or bratwurst.

My Ethics instructor in school used to work for Conagra. After a few conversations with him, I dont eat hot dogs any more.

[twocoach]

Mayo is simply whipped fat. Every time I eat it I picture walking around Sam's Club, grossed out as 300 pound people pushing carts full of 4 pound mayo vats and 5 pound barrels or cheese puffs. Even talking about this makes me want to go work out.

Mayo and aioli are the dipping sauce of choice in many parts of Asia where people are much skinnier than Americans.

They're also popular as a dipping sauce in Europe, where there are many fatties, so I don't really know my point.

Looking around at work, mayo and ranch dressing seem to be a food group in Midwest USA.

[Geezer]

If you hate Mayo, you hate America.

[jhawks99]

On the rare occasions I eat french fries, I dip them in mayo.

I can do bbq sauce on a burger but then it has to be gutter-style (no cheese). Cuz cheese and bbq should have an impenetrable wall between them.

[TDub]

Cole slaw can just be vinegar based.
Potato salad can be made with just oil.
Lobster rolls can come with oil or butter.

Coleslaw should only be made with a vinegar base.

Fuck mayo. Never put mayo on anything.

[jhawks99]

My mom used to make a cole slaw with a cooked dressing. Made with eggs in a double boiler, kinda like hollandaise only not. Pretty good stuff. Hopefully, she still has the recipe.

I made cole slaw for my mayo-hating daughter once. I grated up some jicama to go in it as well. Dressing was lime juice, olive oil, cumin and oregano with some cilantro and jalapeno. Came out pretty good.

[jfish26]

I guess (and again I may be way off) - to me, that's a salad, not a slaw.

[jhawks99]

The 1st one? I think it's old school cole slaw from the 50s and before. Cooked dressing used to be much more popular.

The lime/olive oil thing, I kind of made up at the time. Seemed to go over well. Would make a good topping for fish tacos.

[Shirley]

If I'd known this thread was going to provoke such a contentious discussion, I would have posted it sooner.

But, Geezer's right, dammit!

If you hate Mayo, you hate America.

/thread

[Shirley]

I didn't read down that far. No subscription.

...Even for mayo lovers like me, the image of smearing mayonnaise all over a piece of raw or semi-cooked meat is not the easiest sell. Not everyone likes mayo. It jiggles uncomfortably. It’s nearly pure fat. I get it.

But you should try it! I first let mayo get intimate with some sous-vide steaks a couple years ago. The steaks browned like a dream. Next I rubbed some mayo on my grilled cheese. It’s true: Mayo really does brown better than butter (though these days I use both).

...There are a few reasons mayo is so effective. For starters, mayonnaise — a seasoned emulsion of oil in water — is mostly fat, making it a great delivery mechanism for the fat-soluble flavor compounds found in many aromatics, while leaving behind no distinct flavor of its own. (This means that mayo-marinated meats don’t taste like mayo once they are cooked.)

Moreover, that fat is suspended in an emulsion. An emulsion is a homogeneous mixture of two or more liquids that typically don’t mix together. Fat droplets have a natural tendency to coalesce when suspended in water. (Think: the shattered pieces of the liquid metal Terminator coming back together.) To make mayonnaise, the trick is to break up that fat into droplets that are so fine that they have difficulty reuniting.

Emulsions are always more viscous than either of their independent constituents, which is what gives mayonnaise its semisolid texture. This quality makes it easy to spread a mayonnaise-based marinade evenly across the surface of a piece of meat — and more important, it stays there.

Mayo also improves Maillard browning, which are the chemical reactions that take place when you sear foods.

Functionally, we can think of mayonnaise as consisting of three ingredients: Along with fat and water, there is also egg protein. As the mayonnaise on the surface of a piece of meat cooks, its water content eventually evaporates away, breaking the emulsion and leaving behind a thin, evenly distributed layer of fat, as well as a very, very thin coating of egg protein.

This extra source of protein and fat can increase browning on naked meat or in watery or low-sugar marinades. This comes in handy when you want to minimize the time a piece of meat spends on the grill or in a pan. Thinner cuts — skirt steak, flank steak, skinnier pork chops — typically have trouble browning before they overcook in the center. A chicken cutlet will cook through on a hot grill or skillet in under four minutes. This isn’t a lot of time to properly brown, but with a thin coat of a mayo-based marinade, it’s easy.

On the other hand, it’s difficult to work with sweet sauces like barbecue or teriyaki, which have a tendency to burn as your meat grills. Mayo solves this problem by diluting and coating the sugars with fat and egg protein. Combining a sweet sauce with mayonnaise before rubbing it on the meat allows you to grill as hot as you like without risk of burning. Also, that sauce flavor really sticks to the meat.

Perhaps the greatest advantage a mayo marinade gives you is the ability to easily incorporate flavors. I tried combining mayonnaise with a wide range of sauces and condiments — chimichurri, pesto, Thai red curry paste, barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, Buffalo sauce — before marinating and grilling chicken cutlets, steaks, pork chops, vegetables and fish fillets, and tasting side-by-side with mayo-free counterparts.

Every marinade and sauce was improved — every single one. This was true with both homemade and store-bought mayo.

Another neat thing I discovered: Mayo-marinated meat can be cooked in a cast-iron or nonstick skillet as is, no extra oil necessary. The mayonnaise provides all the fat the pan needs.

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