I will not be denied muffulettas

Last night, I held my belated birthday party. As has been my tradition for a few years now, I planned to serve muffulettas, the delicious New Orleans sandwich, as the centerpiece of the meal.

Events conspired to stop me, but I would not be denied.

The first challenge is that only one New Orleans business, Central Grocery, still sells them mail order. All the other suppliers have stopped selling them. Normally, that's no problem: I know by phone Frankie in shipping, and I order from him successfully each year. This year, though, he had tickets for the Final Four, so muffulettas would not be available until April 3--too late for my party.

I tried calling the main store and offering a bribe if anyone there would pack and ship the muffulettas, but that didn't work. When I said, "But I have a party full of people Saturday night," the man with whom I spoke responded, "Not with muffulettas you don't."

Droll, and accurate.

After exhausting all the options we could find, only one path forward remained: making the muffulettas. Fortunately, Nola Cajun sells the special bread you need and also the Central Grocery olive tapanade that is a key ingredient in the sandwich. Recipes and videos of the construction of the fabled sandwich are readily available. Add meat and cheese--twenty pounds of it--from a local deli, and we were set.

All that remained was nearly two hours of assembly work for two of us. Here are the twelve sandwiches in mid-construction, with the first layer of cheese on the top and the olive oil already on the bottom.

As always, click on the photo to see a larger image.

After many more layers of meat and cheese, the muffulettas were ready to be pressed, taped in paper, pressed some more, and, less than twenty-four hours later, served.

If it sounds like a ton of work for a sandwich, it is. The result, however, is well worth the cost. These things were delicious!

I have to admit, though, that I still hope that the next time I want them, I can just order them.