A bacon butty is three ingredients and about ten minutes. Which means every one of those ingredients has to pull its weight.

You’ll need (for one)

  • 3 or 4 rashers of Smoked Back Bacon
  • 2 thick slices of soft white bread, or a floury bap
  • Salted butter, properly soft
  • Your sauce of choice (more on that below)

Method

  1. Cook the bacon in a cold pan over a medium heat, 3 to 4 minutes a side, until the fat is golden and the edges crisp.
  2. While it cooks, butter the bread right to the edges. Don’t toast it. A butty wants soft bread that squashes around the bacon.
  3. Lift the bacon straight from the pan onto the bread so the hot fat melts into the butter.
  4. Sauce, lid on, press down gently, and cut in half. Diagonally, obviously.

The great sauce debate

Red or brown? Brown sauce brings tang and spice that cuts through the richness; ketchup brings sweetness. There is no wrong answer, apart from mayonnaise. (We’re joking. Mostly.)

Make it better

  • A fried egg with a runny yolk turns a butty into breakfast.
  • A slice of ripe tomato and a few leaves and you’re halfway to a BLT.
  • A pinch of black pepper on the bacon as it comes out of the pan.