OK, what I’m about to write might be a tiny bit controversial.
In my humble, Bandicoot opinion, the USA has contributed two (and only two) major planks to modern Western civilisation. One of those is the Blues, and its variants. (blues-rock, boogie, folk-rock, rock, rock and roll). The other is the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
Now, before you go loud on me! Let me explain.
Americans are quite good at innovation, in that they take an existing idea and expand on it, adding features, and improving the original concept. Thus, baseball, cars, computers, film, hotdogs, rocket propulsion systems, and television.
They didn’t invent any of the above, but they improved on some, and popularised others.
Sometimes, they go overboard; they tend to gild the lily a bit, adding unnecessary features. I’m looking at you, Bypass Burger!
For such an iconic sandwich, the BLT doesn’t have much of a history. There is almost no evidence of BLT recipes before 1900. A recipe for a double-decker club sandwich in the 1903 Good Housekeeping Everyday Cook Book, included bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and turkey, while the 1928 book Seven Hundred Sandwiches by Florence Cowles includes a section on bacon sandwiches, but none contain tomato.
The BLT really became popular after World War II because of the rapid expansion of supermarkets, which made its ingredients available year-round. The initials, representing "bacon, lettuce, tomato", probably began in the U.S. restaurant industry as shorthand for the sandwich, to make ordering easier.
The thing about a BLT is that it’s perfect. Not too much, nor too little, very rich, savoury ingredients, with a bite of acid from the tomato, and very mildly-flavoured, but texturally complex lettuce. Perfectly balanced, both in taste and texture; flavourful, but mild, chewy/crunchy toast, umami and fattiness from the bacon, slightly sweet, slightly acidic tomato, butter, and maybe mayonnaise or tomato relish. It doesn’t need avocado, or cheese, or grilled chicken, or pesto, or pickled capsicum, or pickles, or sundried tomato, or tapenade, or any other bloody thing.
I should here mention the BLT’s one and only drawback. This is NOT a health-food sandwich! It carries a whack of sodium, a lot of saturated fat, and around 2300kj, which is quite a lot. I see the BLT in the same light as a Christmas dinner, where you eat approximately three times a normal adult’s kilojoules, but you only do it once a year. And that’s about how often you should eat a BLT.
B.L.T
Ingredients
* 1 medium, vine-ripened tomato, 3 free-range streaky bacon rashers, salt, pepper, 2 thick-cut slices of good bread, butter, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, tomato relish, or tomato sauce (optional), iceberg lettuce.
Grill or fry the bacon until it’s well cooked and browned to your taste, sprinkling it with salt and pepper as it cooks. Put it aside and keep it warm. Core the tomato and slice it very thinly, (use a mandolin, if you have one). Sprinkle the tomato with salt and pepper and put it aside. Shred about half a cup of lettuce, wash it very thoroughly in very cold water, and dry it very thoroughly. (Use a salad spinner if you have one). Put the lettuce aside, in a cool place.
Toast the bread until it’s nicely browned. Spread it with butter and mayonnaise and the barbecue sauce, hot sauce, tomato relish, or tomato sauce, if you’re using it. Assemble the sandwich with the bacon on the toast then the tomato, then the lettuce. Top the sandwich with the second slice of toast.
Serves one.
Some people like barbecue sauce or tomato ketchup on a BLT. Weird, but it takes all sorts. If they want it, I guess you should give it to them.
But wait! There’s more! Since a) a BLT is perfection itself, and b) a BLT is unbelievably delicious, and c) a BLT is by no means the healthiest sandwich on Earth, then why not go the whole hog and make a double-decker BLT club sandwich!!! Like the one below!
B.L.T Club
Ingredients
* 6 free-range streaky bacon rashers, salt, pepper, 2 medium, vine-ripened tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, 3 thick-cut slices of good bread, butter, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, or tomato relish, or tomato sauce (optional),
Grill or fry the bacon until it’s well cooked and browned to your taste, sprinkling it with salt and pepper as it cooks. Put it aside and keep it warm. Core the tomato and slice it very thinly, (use a mandolin, if you have one). Sprinkle the tomato with salt and pepper and put it aside. Shred about a cup of lettuce, wash it very thoroughly, in very cold water, and dry it very thoroughly. (Use a salad spinner if you have one). Put the lettuce aside, in a cool place.
Toast the bread until it’s nicely browned. Spread two slices with butter and mayonnaise on one side, and spread the third slice with butter and mayonnaise on both sides.
Assemble the sandwich with half the bacon on the first piece of toast, then half the tomato, then half the lettuce. Add some sauce, if you’re using it. Top the sandwich with the second, double-spread slice of toast. Arrange the other half of the bacon on the toast, then the other half of the tomato, then the other half of the lettuce, then the sauce, if you’re using it. Then, top the whole sandwich with the third slice of toast and secure it with a couple of satay skewers.
Serves one.
A behemoth of a B.L.T! You can turn it into a normal club sandwich if you wish, by adding cheese, sliced beef, sliced chicken, sliced ham, or sliced turkey, to one of the layers, if you wish. (The original double-decker club sandwich was a hybrid B.L.T/chicken, lettuce, and tomato, with the crusts cut off. That’s nice too). Club sandwiches can feature anything, but the B.L.T is always a good foundation to build on when constructing one.
The BLT
