The Savory Ingredient Alton Brown Adds To His Egg Salad

Creamy and comforting, it's hard to beat a luxuriously soft egg salad made with jammy eggs. But Alton Brown's recipe takes the classic dish to the next level, thanks to a deliciously savory ingredient: bacon. While other common additions such as chives, mustard, or scallions can add extra flavor and texture to egg salad, this porky choice gives it a much richer, smokier quality.

You might consider egg salad more of a lunchtime or quick dinner option, but Brown's bacon-enhanced version makes it a great choice for breakfast or brunch, too. After all, there's a scientific reason bacon and eggs taste so good together and are an unrivaled breakfast pairing: They create what's known as umami synergy, delivering a rich savory flavor that's more intense when combined than when they're served separately. This creamy yet meaty egg salad heaped on top of crunchy buttered toast would be a great way to wake up the taste buds in the morning.

Brown cooks his slices of bacon until they're crisp for his egg salad. Crumbled into the soft eggy mixture, they provide a tasty, crunchy contrast. But the real touch of magic is that he incorporates some of the reserved fat from the cooked bacon, which adds extra layers of deep savory flavor to every mouthful. It's best served at room temperature rather than chilled to appreciate the full flavor and texture.

Saving flavorful drippings is a hack all bacon lovers need to know, as the fat can enhance so many different dishes. For Alton Brown's egg salad, he uses just a couple of teaspoons of the rendered fat in his chopped boiled egg and mayonnaise mix. When combined with other robustly flavored ingredients such as mustard, lemon juice, hot sauce, red onion, parsley, and chives, the result is tangy, slightly spicy, and packed with umami depth.

To add further complexity to the dish, you could use reserved bacon fat in place of oil to make a rich, savory mayonnaise. Simply beat the rendered fat into an egg yolk, mustard, and vinegar mixture until well combined. It will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge and can be used to enhance any future egg salads for a meaty flavor without the need to cook bacon from scratch every time. It would work well with chicken salad, too.

If you're not making your own mayonnaise, go for a store-bought version that will make the other flavors sing. Alton Brown's favorite mayonnaise is Duke's, which is made with apple cider vinegar for extra tanginess that complements the salty pork. But you could also try a yolk-rich brand such as Kewpie to really ramp up the egginess. If you want to amplify the bacon flavors, too, swap butter for bacon fat on your toast to accompany the egg salad.

For a tasty twist on Alton Brown's flavorful egg salad, you could try switching the smoky bacon for chopped cooked ham or crispy crumbled pancetta (which is different from bacon). But there are also plenty of creative ways to incorporate different meats if you want to take an egg salad to the next level.

A chicken and egg salad fuses two crowd-pleasing favorites — just combine some cooked chopped chicken with the egg and mayonnaise mix. Add a little celery if you want a bit of crunch, and some grassy parsley for freshness. Or stir in crumbled chorizo and diced avocado for a smoky, creamy sandwich filling. For an Italian flavor, you could add some sliced meats such as salami or mortadella to egg salad, along with some diced peppers or pickles for extra zing — delicious stuffed into a soft sub.

Egg salad also works well with steak for a rich and satisfying sandwich. Just spread one side of your bread with the egg mix, then top with slices of cooked strip steak and peppery watercress or arugula. Or for a fishy variation — which packs just as much umami punch — top a simple egg salad with white anchovies, and serve it on toasted crostini. The rich, creamy mixture also works well with smoked salmon for elegant bite-size breakfast tartines. You could also combine egg salad with crabmeat for a tasty toast topper or party snack.