Alton Brown's Add-In For Egg Salad Proves He's A Genius

Fans of Alton Brown know he's unafraid to experiment in the kitchen. On his classic Food Network series "Good Eats," Brown would take viewer questions as cues to explore the science behind cooking. So, it's no surprise that his egg salad recipe takes the classic dish and adds an unexpected ingredient: bacon fat.

First off, Brown's egg salad recipe is for Breakfast Egg Salad. Of course, scrambled eggs and hard-boiled eggs are breakfast staples, so why not introduce a dish that's essentially hard-boiled scrambled eggs to your morning routine? Egg salad doesn't have to be just for lunch. This is not Brown's only innovative take on breakfast food, either. His cookbook "Alton Brown: EveryDay Cook" contains recipes for morning treats like Buttermilk Lassi and Nitrous Pancakes. And if it's breakfast time, what pairs better with eggs than bacon? But while Brown's recipe calls for cooking four slices of bacon, it's only a side dish to the main egg salad course. You're cooking bacon to render its fat for inclusion into the otherwise traditional egg salad dressing of mayonnaise, lemon juice, and herbs and spices.

Bacon fat contains the same rich and smoky flavor profile as its source, so it's an easy way to pump up the taste of recipes by swapping it in place of oils or other liquid ingredients. In the case of Alton Brown's Breakfast Egg Salad, bacon fat replaces the mustard found in conventional egg salad preparations, though it still calls for mustard powder. Brown's recipe also includes a healthy amount of hot sauce, so this take brings much bolder flavors to egg salad overall. (Lest we think Brown's dish is an egg salad in name only, the recipe is still rooted in mayonnaise — specifically, Duke's Mayonnaise, that Southern favorite gaining in popularity nationwide.)

Bacon fat is a great addition to any egg recipe. Cooking eggs in bacon fat can be a cook's secret weapon for enhancing the flavor of fried or scrambled eggs while saving time — you can use the same frying pan for your bacon and your eggs — and money. Just reserve whatever bacon fat isn't used for the eggs and use it as a cooking oil substitute the next time you sauté vegetables. Storing leftover bacon fat is simple; just place it in a container that can be tightly sealed. The bacon fat will keep, whether stored at room temperature or within the refrigerator.