Mother of Baconator

Oven-baked bacon: line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. I typically overlap two or three pieces. 

Remove at least 9 slices of bacon from the package and lay it on the foil-lined baking sheet. You can place your bacon very close together but try not to overlap. 

Do not preheat your oven. When you have as much bacon as you can fit on your sheet pan, place it in a cold oven and set it to 400 degrees F (205 C). 

Set a timer for 25 minutes and start checking the bacon. Depending on the type of bacon and thickness, it could take another 5 or more minutes. 

I start checking at 25 minutes and if it's not fully done, I will flip the bacon and put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so, checking the doneness every so often. Once the bacon is cooked to your liking, remove all bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and pour the bacon grease into a jar or sealed container to be used later. 

Bacon-infused mayonnaise: if you have an immersion blender: Add all ingredients to your immersion blender cup or a cup/jar that is a little bit larger than your blender stick. Put the head of the blender on the bottom of the cup and start blending on low. Once you start to see things thickening, you can start to make a slight up-and-down movement. I like to stop every so often and kind of stir things around with the stick while the blender isn't running. But you should be able to get something that resembles mayonnaise texture in just two or three minutes of blending. Once done you can skip to the last two steps before Bacon-infused cheese slices.

If you do not have a blender, get ready to whisk: Grab a medium mixing bowl and a whisk.

Whisk the yolks, mustard, and bacon fat until it all is a bit frothy. Slowly trickle oil into the bowl while whisking. Add more oil very slowly whisking the whole time. You will start to see things getting a bit thicker and at that point, you can add more oil.

Once things start to look more like a yogurt texture you can increase the flow of oil. But you still want to continue vigorously whisking. If you ever start to get a texture where your mayo looks like it's curdling, you need to stop adding oil until your texture binds back together.

You can stop whisking when you've used all your oil, and the texture of your mayo is smooth. 

Add the chopped bacon pieces and stir to combine them into the creamy mayonnaise. 

Put the bacon-infused mayonnaise into a jar or sealed container and store it in the fridge for no more than two weeks.

Bacon-infused cheese slices: add a greased or Silpat lined sheet pan to your oven on its lowest setting. Mine is 150 F (65 C).

Add water to a medium-sized pot and bring to a simmer. Add sodium citrate and stir to combine.

Slowly add all the shredded cheese, stopping to stir the cheese into the sauce after every handful. Once all the cheese is added stir very well while the cheese is still simmering to make sure it is very smooth.

Once the cheese is very smooth, carefully pour the sauce over the warm sheet pan and shake the sheet pan to allow the sauce to spread out. You may need a knife or offset spatula for this. Once the sauce is in a consistently thin layer, sprinkle evenly with the chopped pieces of bacon.

Cover the cheese with parchment or wax paper and move it to a refrigerator to cool for around an hour.

Once the bacon-infused cheese is fully cool, you can carefully remove it from the sheet pan and slice the cheese into 3.5-inch squares or whatever shapes you desire. To store the cheese, place a piece of parchment or wax paper between each slice and store it in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.

Bacon burger patties: heat a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat for at least 5 minutes. Shape your ground beef into 2 thin patties that are a quarter pound each. I find it's easiest to form patties on a small piece of parchment paper so that you can easily transfer the patties to the hot pan or griddle.

Chop up one slice of bacon and press small pieces of bacon into each patty. 

Add your shaped patties to the hot skillet top/bacon side down in the pan and season the exposed side of the patties with salt and pepper. Cook the patties for 3 minutes on the first side and then flip. After one minute add the slices of bacon-infused cheese to the top of each patty and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes on the second side. These patties should be fairly thin, so they will cook quickly.

Once the burgers are fully cooked remove them to a plate to rest while you get ready to build the rest of the burger. 

Sandwich Assembly: toast the bun. You can do this in a toaster oven or place them on the still-hot griddle or pan to get a light toast on the outside.

Add one cheese-topped patty to the bottom bun and top the cheese with three half slices of bacon. Repeat with the second patty and 3 more half slices of bacon.

Spread bacon-infused mayonnaise and ketchup to the top bun and crown the Mother of Baconator.