Recreating Au Bon Pain's Smoked Salmon and Wasabi sandwich

November 27, 2007 3:43 PM

How can I make my own "Smoked Salmon & Wasabi on Onion Dill Bagel" sandwiches?

Wow, do I love the "Smoked Salmon & Wasabi" sandwiches they sell at Au Bon Pain!! So much that I get cravings for them every day around this time. I'd love to make my own. The obvious ingredients: onion dill bagels, herb cream cheese, smoked salmon, and a cucumber, are easy to obtain. But what goes into that wasabi sauce (I don't think it is straight wasabi paste.)

Any tips? I can not afford to keep buying them from Au Bon Pain, and anyway, by the time I get a craving for one it is later in the day and they only sell them for breakfast.

posted by bchaplin to food & drink (13 comments total)

But what goes into that wasabi sauce

Soybean Oil, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Candied Ginger, Distilled White and Red Raspberry Vinegar, Apricots, Mustard Flour, Egg Yolks, Modified Corn Starch, Horseradish, Ginger Puree, Flavoring, Wasabi, Calcium Disodium EDTA
posted by chrismear at 3:46 PM on November 27, 2007

Ewwwww! OK, I think that single answer has cured me of my addiction to those sandwiches!

Maybe I could make up my own recipe? Perhaps one that doesn't have soybean oil, sugar and corn syrup as the first three ingredients.
posted by bchaplin at 4:04 PM on November 27, 2007

One of the things you are probably getting a craving for is glutamate--source of "umami," or the mysterious "fifth taste."

Glutamate's most infamous incarnation is MSG; it also rears its head in many processed foods as "modified" or "hydrolyzed" starches or proteins.

You are probably getting a craving partially because the bagel and its processed fillings are rich in added glutamates. I would not be surprised if you recreated the sandwich and found that it did not really satisfy your craving.

Some natural sources of glutamate include browned meat (that crust that tastes so good), tomato paste, quality parmesan, and many types of mushrooms.

Sorry if this isn't a direct anwer, but I hope it's interesting.
posted by rachelpapers at 4:07 PM on November 27, 2007 [2 favorites]

Hmmmm. I bet it wouldn't suck if you mixed wasabi powder with some decent mayo instead of their scary stuff.
posted by Good Brain at 4:07 PM on November 27, 2007 [2 favorites]

You are probably getting a craving partially because the bagel and its processed fillings are rich in added glutamates. I would not be surprised if you recreated the sandwich and found that it did not really satisfy your craving.

Wouldn't adding Accent or some other form of MSG to the wasabi sauce recipe compensate for this?
posted by thisjax at 4:12 PM on November 27, 2007

I agree with Good Brain - soybean oil, vinegar, mustard and egg yolk sounds like mayonnaise to me. Make your own in a mortar and pestle or in a blender (use a neutral vegetable oil), or buy a brand you really like, and then gussy it up with ginger, pureed dried/reconstituted apricots, horseradish, sugar, and wasabi. Salt it with shoyu if it lacks oomph.
posted by peachfuzz at 4:24 PM on November 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Maybe I'm just craving the strange combination of smoked salmon, pungent wasabi, and sweetener? (I do understand about umami, though!)
posted by bchaplin at 4:27 PM on November 27, 2007

It's almost certainly just plain old wasabi mayo. Get the wasabi paste in a tube and squeeze a bit into a portion of mayo to the desired spiciness.
posted by junesix at 4:48 PM on November 27, 2007

My SO does smoked-salmon and wasabi pikelets, and the wasabi mix is just wasabi + cream cheese.
posted by pompomtom at 5:05 PM on November 27, 2007

Trader Joe's makes a yummy wasabi mayonnaise.
posted by amarynth at 5:31 PM on November 27, 2007

Nthing wasabi and mayonnaise. I've made smoked salmon sandwiches with a spread of just mayonnaise mixed with wasabi from a tube and it was pretty delicious.

If you really want the umami taste, you can get the kewpie mayonnaise that they sell in squeeze bottles in Japanese markets. That stuff is a bit thicker and tastes more delicious (MSG) than the Best Foods type mayonnaise.
posted by nakedsushi at 5:43 PM on November 27, 2007

Smoked salmon + wasabi + creamcheese= pure ownage. Of course, so is just an old fashioned Lox bagel, which I prefer on poppyseed bagels.
posted by TomMelee at 6:37 PM on November 27, 2007

Thanks, everyone!
posted by bchaplin at 6:43 PM on November 27, 2007