BLT
The acronym that carries its own recipe: bacon, lettuce, tomato — with toast and mayo as the architecture that makes the trio's salt-fat-acid-crunch argument work. The craft is the ratio (bacon and tomato in equal, generous measure; lettuce as crunch, not filler), the tomato's seasoning, and the architecture that keeps the bread dry to the last bite.
BLT
Prep: 15 minutes · Cook: 15 minutes · Total: 30 minutes · Makes 2 sandwiches
Ingredients
The trio, in ratio
- 8 slices bacon (about 150 g)
- 1 large ripe tomato (about 200 g), in 4 thick slices
- 100 g (about 4 cups) iceberg or butterhead lettuce, in leaves — or 60 g arugula's peppery lane
The architecture
- 4 slices white bread, Pullman or country (about 70 g each), toasted golden
- 3 tbsp (45 g) mayonnaise
- Salt and black pepper, on the tomato directly
Instructions
- Mayo on all four faces, corner to corner. The mayo is the waterproofing and the acid's carrier; the corner-to-corner law (#49's) applies doubly here — the BLT's failure is always a soggy last corner. Checkpoint — every face carries an even film; no bread visible anywhere.
- Build bottom-up in the moisture order. Lettuce on the bottom slice's mayo (the dry floor under the tomato's flood), tomato slices over the lettuce — salted and peppered directly, on the layer — bacon laid flat over the tomato (its fat runs down onto the acid, which is the point), and lettuce again on top, the crown's cushion. Checkpoint — from the side: bread, mayo, lettuce, tomato (seasoned), bacon, lettuce, bread — the tomato never touches bread, buffered by lettuce on both sides, and the bacon lies flat in a single even layer, edge to edge.
- Press gently, halve, serve in the minute. Checkpoint — eating test: toast's crunch, mayo's cool, tomato's acid-sweet burst with its own salt carrying, bacon's smoke-crisp, lettuce's cold snap — the four textures and three flavors arriving in exact sequence, the sandwich's whole architecture doing its work in every bite. The tomato should be seasoned enough to taste like the star, not a filler; under-seasoned tomato is the BLT's quietest failure.
- Cook the bacon in the oven for flatness: a rack over a sheet pan at 200 °C, 12–15 minutes, to even, flat crisp — the BLT's bacon lies flat in the stack, and flat bacon makes the sandwich's architecture possible.
- Toast to golden, firmer than usual — the tomato's moisture and the mayo's fat are both headed for this bread, and the toast is the last line of defense.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Soggy bottom by the last quarter | Tomato on bread or thin toast | The lettuce fence; golden-plus toast |
| Bacon pulls out in one piece | Curled strips, no press | Oven-flat bacon; the gentle press |
| Sandwich tastes dry despite mayo | Tomato under-seasoned | Salt and pepper directly on the slices |
Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations
- A minute-zero sandwich: bacon cooks ahead (re-crisps 4 minutes at 180 °C) and everything else is assembly. The built BLT holds 10 minutes, and only just. - Variations: the #50 club as the three-decker ceremony; #87's fried green tomato lane; the avocado addition (the BLAT — honestly promoted); the #43 wrap format for the lunchbox.