@Kaido some time this week you need to show us all how to make a proper BLT.
Video or pictures please.
Edit:
@Kaido ,
@WelshBloke and
@ElFenix have a strong showing. You got it in ya to beat them?
Oddly enough I'm not a huge BLT fan.
However:
1. The first rule is to use tomatoes with flavor. I didn't get "introduced" to tomatoes until like 5 or 10 years ago. I only ever had the perfectly round red ones from the store that tasted like water. Then a lady I used to work with brought in a basketful of homegrown tomatoes to share and OH MY GOSH MY EYES WERE OPENED! BLT's never made sense to me before that: lettuce? no flavor. tomatoes? no flavor. Bacon on...toast? Really? It just fell apart in your mouth & eating delicious bacon on dry toast was pretty meh. But with a REAL tomato? NOW we're talking! Be sure to season the tomato with salt and pepper.
2.
Shred the lettuce. With a sharp knife. Re: Serious Eat's BLT Manifesto:
The secret to the best bacon, lettuce, and tomato? Use the best tomatoes. Put away the fancy bread. Slow-cook the bacon. And most importantly: Don't mess with it.
www.seriouseats.com
3. Hellman's mayo, of course. Copious amounts of it. Optionally, an atom-thin layer on one piece of toast of Thousand Island dressing. Just enough to give it a Lacroix-esqe hint of tang & sweetness. A whisper of flavor. I like mayo & extra mayo, so I put mayo on both sides: one to hold the shredded lettuce on & one to hold the bacon on, like a bit of glue.
4. As far as bread goes, a lot of options. Wheat, honey wheat, white, sourdough, etc. I will say that a good piece of bakery bread can really make or break a BLT. RideFree's bread machine toast-bread recipe is actually
really good for this:
This is an unpopular opinion, but I not only like mine toasted, but I do it using my triple-fat grilled cheese (but no cheese in this sandwich) method (mayo/butter spread on the outside with hot oil in the pan to fry in) on a cast-iron pan:
5. Bacon: this is a bit tricky. Too crispy & it all falls apart in the sandwich. Too soft & it's too hard to tear with your teeth, which ruins the sandwich experience. I either do the oven method on a rack in a pan or else do it sous-vide & then just fry it up, as that makes it crispy-soft. Especially with the sous-vide method, you can stack more bacon together because of the crispy-soft texture...doesn't fall apart into shards, but there isn't any teeth-pulling pieces, so you can get a good bite in. Only catch is, and this may be in my head, I feel like the sous-vide process detracts a noticeable amount of bacony flavor. I may need to revisit this process with better bacon lol. As the BLT Manifest says above, "There's nothing that can ruin a perfect-looking BLT like a slice of bacon that pulls out of the sandwich".
A well-crafted BLT can be a pretty decent sandwich. Personally I can take it or leave it tho. Lately I've been hooked on triple-decker grilled cheese sandwiches. The coma they put me in is amaaaaazing lol.