Ruhlman’s BLT Contest Entry

Michael Ruhlman has a contest this summer to make a BLT from scratch, and Sarah and I thought we’d enter it.

This is our one entry for all three categories (photograph, overall preparation and interpretation).

The bread is a sort of mock whole wheat sourdough, or “good yeast gone bad.” Here is the recipe:

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
2 t. course salt
2 t. instant yeast
2 T. good olive oil (1 T. in the dough, 1 T. to coat the dough while it rests)
about 1 1/4 cups warm water

Knead everything except for 1 T. olive oil for about 10 minutes. I used a Kitchenaid stand mixer. Leave the dough out overnight in warm weather, coated in 1 T. oil, covered loosely, to develop sour flavors. If it’s cold, leave for up to a day or two. Refrigerate dough for up to a few days to further develop flavors. Remove dough from the fridge, shape and let rise for a couple hours (until 1 1/2 times larger), then bake at 375 degrees for around 45 minutes (until brown and hollow sounding).

The bacon is from the recipe in Charcuterie using maple syrup, white sugar and molasses for the sweetener (plus of course salt and pink salt). I coated it with crushed black pepper after rinsing off the cure and smoked it over charcoal and hickory chunks. The belly itself came from DW Whitaker at the West Side Market.

The tomatoes and Swiss chard (green and red) came from our garden (we didn’t grow lettuce this year).

The emulsified sauce  is deconstructed as the sandwich contains all of the ingredients for aioli: egg yolk, garlic, acid (red wine vinegar) and fat (rendered from the bacon). 

Here’s the final preparation:

(1) Sauté bacon in the center of a large skillet (ideally cast iron). I used one slice of bacon 3/8″ thick per sandwich.
(2) When bacon is 2/3 done, add sliced garlic (mine came from City Fresh) on one side. Sauté for about a minute.
(3) Add Swiss chard to garlic and cook egg(s) on the other side of the bacon. Flip egg(s) so they’re over easy. All the fat for sauteeing is from the bacon–you might have to tilt the pan as you cook to spread it around.
(4) To assemble each sandwich: toast bread, add egg, then bacon, then tomato, then Swiss chard. Drizzle chard with red wine vinegar, and top with second piece of bread.

I was really happy with this. The combination of wheat sourdough, smoky bacon, sweet tomato, garlic, and slightly bitter chard came together for a great sandwich.

Sarah took the photo, and Ben came up with the sandwich.