Kenji's cookbook is one of the best to have been published in the last 10-years. Makes a lot of good points, finding a good tomato is the hardest part however, I will defer to the master when it comes to building a BLT...fry-up an egg and melt some cheese.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
I like Sam's take on the BLT.

[>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

I never made it through to that point. Wow, is that guy annoying. 5 min in no cooking, I ain't got time for that. From the breif pic they showed it looked like dude was making a breakfast sandwich, not a BLT.

You can serve me any variety of BLT, as long has it has home grown tomato.

I tend to scrub through his videos to avoid the chatter given the end result of his efforts is usually pretty good.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
IMO, the greatest sammich of them all. Here's one guy's opinion. What's yours?

<video snipped>

Damn. I'm hungry now and it's way past bedtime.

I like this guy’s ideas for BLTs! I’ve been baking my bacon, but I’m going to try his method – frying the bacon on my griddle with a bacon press, then pan-toasting the bread in the bacon drippings.

I’ll have to buy a bacon press. The Lodge 6-3/4” x 4-1/2” rectangular press looks to be perfect for my round cooktop griddle.

Come on tomato season!

A couple years ago I took the time to build a couple different best "BLT" recipes, just to see what I might be missing.

One of them had anchove paste, grey poupon mustard, a certain kind of swiss, and to be weighed down with a foil-covered brick.

And for me 'BLT' simply excludes other stuff, let alone demand cheese/egg etc.

Yes they were good. Neither "late night snack" were what I've come to prefer in 'BLT'.

No criticism to them, just recognizing my own vision.

Got into an actual measuring the sliced bread and cheese with a micrometer, along with incredibly arcane fiddling with 'grilled cheese' sandwich, including very accurate ratio of mayo to thickness of chess & bread. Pretty scientific I guess.

Some people prefer the illusion of perfection arising only from overly meticulous details. My buddy has his crushingly methodical routine for making French Press coffee, that includes not only timing the boiling water but running a temp gauge along with it.

While he enjoys it thoroughly, I don't care for the product. What he regards as essence of the bean doesn't hit the flavor I favor.

'Good' is a wide swath by which to measure any late night snack. 'Perfect' implies only one honing method produces 'the sharpest' blade. I don't think so.

My basic “hack” for a BLT is the following:

*Very* cold (usually Beefsteak) tomatoes, hearts of romaine lettuce, and real mayo

Oven-baked bacon

Lightly toasted bread

Freshly ground pepper

Love bacon, tomato and toast...lettuce not so much. It's ok, just not used to it on sammiches. I slice up an onion, use that. Works for me.

I like Iceberg lettuce for the crunchy texture that it adds; it adds very little flavor.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
I like Iceberg lettuce for the crunchy texture that it adds; it adds very little flavor.

Same here. I just got back from a local restaurant that makes a pretty good BLT (traditional version)--I ordered and ate 2 of them, followed by a piece of their chocolate meringue pie (mmmm!)

flashguy

I like the idea of the trowel/bacon press. I'm gonna have to run to Lowe's tomorrow and get one.

Also haven't tried browning my bread in bacon grease. I usually melt salted butter and slather some of that on the bread and the sides (crusts), which I also do to my grilled cheese sammiches. Must've worked, the kids prefer mine over mom's.

I don't generally care for tomatoes, but a BLT is not a BLT without them. The saltiness of the bacon and the creaminess of the mayonnaise set off the acidity of the mater perfectly. It's a sandwich that is more than the sum of its parts. They all have to work together.

As I mentioned above, I’ve been baking my bacon, but I’m going to try frying it on a griddle, with a bacon press, as in the OP. A question for you expert bacon fryers: Do you put the bacon onto a cold griddle, or a preheated griddle?

Also, I’m wondering if it would be good to preheat the bacon press on another burner of the cooktop.

IMHO, the secret to the best BLT is a good T. If it's one of those hot house tomatoes you get this time of year it just isn't worth eating. You gotta have a good thick slice of a home-grown to make it edible.

I’ve been thinking… The main point of the video in the OP of this thread is that the tomato is the critical element of a BLT. He says:

“The prime BLT directive: every other ingredient is in service of the tomato.”

That being the case, the bread ought to be chosen to accommodate the shape of a big tomato slice – that would be a top-notch burger bun!

I have a 6.75” x 4.5" Lodge bacon press that’ll cover four 4.5" lengths of thick-cut bacon. Then, on the bun, two pieces parallel E-W and two parallel N-S. Perfection!

Come on tomato season!

This thread was bad. I stopped working and went and made a guess what Idiot me I only made one.
Dang, BLTs are tasty.

I always try to keep it a BLT but usually end up putting an egg on it as well. So damn good.

Minimal lettuce minimal tomato plenty of bacon and mayo and we have a winner.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
As I mentioned above, I’ve been baking my bacon, but I’m going to try frying it on a griddle, with a bacon press, as in the OP. A question for you expert bacon fryers: Do you put the bacon onto a cold griddle, or a preheated griddle?

Also, I’m wondering if it would be good to preheat the bacon press on another burner of the cooktop.

I use a Stargazer cast iron pan with a Jack Daniels cast iron press for my thick cut bacon. I preheat the pan which is SOP guidance from Stargazer. I don't bother preheating the press.


As for tomatoes, I've read where refrigerating them is frowned on for best taste. Thoughts?

Not enough bacon in that first one.

bald1: Thanks for your recommendation of bringing the pan up to temperature before placing the bacon in it. I’ll do it that way, even though I have a slight problem with that method: my circular griddle is barely large enough for my bacon press, so the bacon has to be precisely positioned – easier to do while the griddle is cold.

As for refrigerating tomatoes… My mother was an expert cook, and she never refrigerated tomatoes – she put them on the windowsill, where they got the sun. I do the same. Web advice varies. There is this, for example:

https://www.seriouseats.com/20...gerate-tomatoes.html

The season continues, for a while. Some excellent heirloom tomatoes in my store now.

I call mine BMTs, rather than BLTs. On one hand, I don’t think lettuce is good enough to justify the space it requires, so no L. On the other hand, I consider mayo to be every bit as essential as B and T, so BMT.