How to Construct the Perfect B.L.T.

With all due respect to the straightforward grilled cheese, the classic PB&J, and even the sophisticated C.L.U.B sandwich, there is one sandwich I hold in higher regard than any other: the almighty B.L.T. While the CLUB describes the locations of select ingredients (chicken, lettuce under bread), the B.L.T describes the small amount of ingredients required to compile a delicious sandwich: Bacon. Lettuce. Tomato. Simple. Elegant. Tasty as heck.

Here are my tips to creating the best version of the best sandwich on the planet. 

The Bread:

Like the ingredients themselves, there is no need to overthink the bread. While sourdoughs (especially ours) are extremely tasty, they become a little too crispy for the sandwich. Flavoured breads are also amazing on their own, but remember: the bread is not the focus of this sandwich, we’ll get to that shortly. A classic, white loaf of bread is the perfect vessel for our sammie, providing a crunchy, yet soft bed to lay our ingredients on.

The Bacon:

Anytime I’m asked how I like my bacon my response is always the same: perfect. I don’t mean to sound snobby (we’re talking about bacon after all), but everyone’s tastes are different and crispy bacon for me could be too burnt for you. Prepare the bacon to your own taste, whatever it may be. Just make sure to get the grease off of it, we don’t need a soggy sandwich!

The Lettuce:

There are a plethora of different leaves to use for sammies, and just as many opinions on which one is best. For the perfect B.L.T however, we aren’t really looking for a bunch of flavour from the greens, once again they are not the focus. We are looking to get some texture from our lettuce, and because we aren’t using a crispy bread, that means we need some crunch. Iceberg lettuce is the best bet for that, but romaine would also suffice!

The Tomato:

You’ll notice we’re on our last ingredient and I haven’t yet mentioned what the focus of the sandwich is. Maybe contrary to popular belief, bacon is not the main attraction here. Rather, that honour belongs to the tomato! Grab your best tomatoes, ideally fresh from the garden and slice them slightly bigger than you might normally for a sandwich. When assembling your B.L.T be sure to season the tomatoes with salt and pepper. 

A simple sandwich means simple tips to perfecting it. Of course you can make it however you want (I always add cheese to my B.L.T’s), but following these steps will provide a perfect base to making (in my opinion) the perfect sandwich!