Bacon, Egg & Cheese

Steps

1. toast2 min
   skillet, medium, cut side down in butter
   split roll + butter spread on both cut faces, pressed flat until golden and faintly crisp — griddling in fat rather than toasting dry is what waterproofs the crumb, so the egg and melted cheese sit on the bread instead of soaking into it. Set the roll aside cut side up.
2. fry8 min
   same skillet, medium, turning once
   bacon, laid flat and pressed down when it starts to buckle, until the fat has rendered and the strips are stiff — pull them to a plate while they still have a little give, because they firm up further as they cool and limp bacon in the middle of a sandwich is the most common failure here
3. prep1 min
   off heat
   pour off the rendered fat, leaving about 1 tbsp in the pan. Too much and the sandwich is greasy and the egg fries crisp at the edges; a dry pan and you lose the smoke and salt that makes a bodega egg taste different from a plain omelet.
4. whisk1 min
   until uniformly yellow, no streaks
   eggs + water + salt + black pepper — the water turns to steam inside the sheet and keeps it tender, and seasoning goes in here rather than on the finished sandwich so the salt is distributed through the egg instead of sitting on top
5. fry2 min
   medium, edges lifted
   beaten egg poured into the reserved bacon fat as one thin layer, dragging the set edges inward with a spatula so raw egg runs underneath and fills the gaps, until the surface is set but still visibly wet and glossy
6. fold1 min
   pan off the heat
   + american cheese laid on the wet surface, then fold the sheet in thirds and again to roughly the footprint of the roll = egg and cheese. Take the pan off the burner before the cheese goes on: residual heat melts it into a sauce, while direct heat overcooks the egg to rubber before the cheese has softened. Folding to the size of the bread is what keeps the sandwich square and stops it from spilling out the sides.
7. rest5 min
   wrapped in paper, then foil
   bottom roll + folded egg and cheese + bacon on top + top roll, wrapped tightly and left alone — the trapped steam finishes the melt through the whole slice of cheese and relaxes the griddled crumb just enough to bite cleanly. Unwrap and cut in half through the paper.