A BLT is a pretty perfect sandwich. I don’t thing I need to explain why the combination of crispy, salty bacon, crunchy lettuce, creamy mayo, and juicy tomatoes taste good together. Each component has a part to play, and they play it oh-so-well, but I think there’s a reason the “B” comes first. People love their bacon, and I’ve got good news for people: There are three (3) ways you can add more bacon to your BLT (to make a BbbLT).
Start with the bread
Toasting the bread for a BLT is a pretty common move. It gives the bread a little more structure, which is helpful if you’re working with particularly juicy tomatoes. But why toast when you can fry—especially when you can fry your bread in bacon grease and infuse it with porky, salty flavor while adding texture?
The procedure—which we’ve covered before—is a simple one:
- Fry your bacon for your BLT as you usually would.
- Place your crisp bacon on some paper towels, and turn your burner down a little (medium is good).
- Fry a piece of white bread in the pan you cooked the bacon, in the delicious drippings. A couple of minutes each side is all you need.
- Move the golden brown, bacon-flavored, griddled bread to a plate and get ready to build your extra-bacon-y BLT.
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Make meaty mayo
I love a meaty mayo, be it duck fat mayo or bacon fat mayo, but the latter is the obvious choice if you’re trying to sneak extra bacon into your BLT. (Though the duck fat mayo wouldn’t be bad in this context.) Meaty mayo is still tangy and slightly sweet, but it has just enough bacon grease to give it a salty, smoky edge.
Bacon Fat Mayo (See the video how-to here)
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup neutral oil (such as vegetable, canola, or safflower)
- 2 tablespoons bacon fat
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Melt the bacon fat in the microwave so it’s just liquified, and pour the neutral oil in the same measuring cup to cool it down a bit. (You don’t want to cook your yolks.) Add everything but the oil mixture to the cup that came with your immersion blender and gently pour the oil on top. Place the blender head down at the bottom, turn it on high, and let the blades pull the oil down into the other ingredients. Once you see ribbons of mayo start to form, slowly move the head up and down, tilting it as needed to get everything emulsified. Spread on your bacon-fried bread, and ready your tomatoes.
Marinate your tomatoes in a bacon vinaigrette
Marinating your tomato slices can turn dreary, lackluster specimens into something that’s packed with flavor. In her New York Times cooking diary, Chef Clare de Boer shares a tomato tip that amplifies the fleshy fruit’s flavor with a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt. The tomato gets infused, while the juices mix with the oil and vinegar to make a tomato-y vinaigrette, which is then poured on top of the sandwich.
A simple mixture of oil and vinegar is delicious, but you can level up even further by marinating your tomatoes in a bacon vinaigrette.
Bacon Vinaigrette (adapted from this video):
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil
- 2 tablespoons melted bacon fat
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 big squeezes of Dijon mustard
- 2 big drizzles of honey
- Big pinch of salt
- 10 grinds fresh pepper
Add everything to a mason jar and shake to emulsify. Drizzle the dressing on sliced tomatoes and let them marinate for about 15 minutes. Place tomatoes on your bacon-mayo-slathered, bacon-fried bread, then toss the excess marinade with shredded lettuce and pile it on top. Enjoy the most bacon-forward BLT of your life.
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