The Charm of the BLT

Evil Ronnie has been on vacation for a few days and we now belong to the "bread of the day club". First, he did brioche for a couple of days..then potato bread for a couple of days. Since we had some good, Scott's jowl country bacon from Kentucky in the fridge and some great bread, I suggested we do BLT's last night. ER also goes to the Daley Plaza farmer's market on Tuesdays and buys really fine tunnel grown Brandywine tomatoes from the stand at the southwestern-most corner of the plaza. (you have to let them ripen completely before you eat them for full enjoyment) So, putting these components together with the addition of a little mayo and some romaine, made for a delectable sandwich. We sat back afterward and practically needed a cigarette, they were that good! Ooh, I heard the timer go off, must be time for the sweet potato bread to come out of the oven.

The Lovely Donna wrote:We sat back afterward and practically needed a cigarette, they were that good! Ooh, I heard the timer go off, must be time for the sweet potato bread to come out of the oven.

I've never had Scott's jowl country bacon but bet it's swell. We have a pack of Burger's sliced country pork jowl in the fridge (any idea how it stacks up next to Scott's?) and now I know what I'm going to do with part of it. Some of my own tomatoes are close to ripe and maybe if the weather warms up this week, they'll make it. I bet a BLT would be good on a couple of slices of Frank Masi's Italian cornbread...

Thanks for the idea -- I love BLT's but in recent years they've fallen completely out of the dining cycle... time to change that!

Antonius

Donna, theoretically, I love everything about BLTs, but for some reason, the flavor of the bacon always seems submerged beneath the taste of other ingredients. This could be due to the quality of the bacon The Wife brings home, but I dunno...I've yet to make a BLT that "works."

I may steal that line about the cigarette...

Hammond

PS. Antonius, didn't you get some very early tomatoes last year, too? Must be all that Horace you read to your garden.

I've consulted with the professional and he said Burger's and Scott's are similar. I hope you and Amata enjoy a BLT as much as we did!

David, I know what you mean about the bacon submergence. The answer is to have a really peppy-flavored bacon. I realized this, after a life-long "eh?" reaction to the BLT, when I had the version on offer at Firkin in Libertyville seven or eight years ago. The Nueske bacon made the difference; thick, strongly seasoned -- it put the tomatoes in their place (the lettuce and basil and "special" mayo, too). Not that I eat a lot of them, but I've been in the pro-BLT camp ever since. That said, Donna & ER's version sounds like another level altogether.

Peppered nueske bacon, aioli, good lettuce and small roasted tomatoes on grilled sourdough. Really tough to beat.

The Lovely Donna wrote:I've consulted with the professional and he said Burger's and Scott's are similar. I hope you and Amata enjoy a BLT as much as we did!

Thanks! Looking forward to it!


A

P.S. David: yes, we had a small number of excellent and very early tomatoes last summer, but then for most of May and early June we had sunny, hot weather more typical of Tripoli than Tri-Taylor. This year things are more lush and productive but growing at a more reasonable pace too. I had one ripe tomato yesterday (some kind of heirloom, beefsteaky sort)... small but ripe and delicious... some plum tomatoes are coming next... lest Dikzak (the squirrel) gets to them first...ma forse lo posso scannare prima!

Antonius, I'm just curious--where are you getting the Burger's up there? (My neighborhood supermarket carries a variety of their cured meats (but of course: this IS KC)... and I was basking in that singular glory until I read that you could get it too! I'm pleased for you, but sad at my loss of uniqueness.

Geo
PS. And another question: so far as I have seen, there has not tripped one single word from your lips re: The Events of Sunday.

PPS. Buffon is truly a wonder.

It seems like Burger's has been getting much better distribution in the past year or so. I've bought their smoked jowl at Jewel (Roosevelt and Ashland, but I've seen it at others), and perhaps A&A bought theirs there, too.

David Hammond wrote:Donna, theoretically, I love everything about BLTs, but for some reason, the flavor of the bacon always seems submerged beneath the taste of other ingredients. This could be due to the quality of the bacon The Wife brings home, but I dunno...I've yet to make a BLT that "works."

Try using bacon fat to make your mayo.

David Hammond wrote:Donna, theoretically, I love everything about BLTs, but for some reason, the flavor of the bacon always seems submerged beneath the taste of other ingredients. This could be due to the quality of the bacon The Wife brings home, but I dunno...I've yet to make a BLT that "works."

I may steal that line about the cigarette...

Hammond

PS. Antonius, didn't you get some very early tomatoes last year, too? Must be all that Horace you read to your garden.

David,

I don't remember if you got some of the bacon after my trip to GA. But that bacon does make a great BLT even with good, but not great tomatoes.

David Hammond wrote:Donna, theoretically, I love everything about BLTs, but for some reason, the flavor of the bacon always seems submerged beneath the taste of other ingredients.

My wife for some reason has always eschewed the L in the BLT. Bacon and tomato sandwiches are de rigeur in our household, and although I appreciate the cool, crisp contrast of the lettuce, and I can understand how that might complete the sandwich for some, I'm really quite happy with the two primary ingredients being left pretty well alone, save some good but not overpowering bread.

Losing the L might make the bacon more obvious, even if you're not using Burger's jowl. That and lots of bacon. Mmmmm.

Geo wrote:Antonius, I'm just curious--where are you getting the Burger's up there? (My neighborhood supermarket carries a variety of their cured meats (but of course: this IS KC)... and I was basking in that singular glory until I read that you could get it too! I'm pleased for you, but sad at my loss of uniqueness.

Well, it seems the first count was already covered by someone else... yes, 'twas da Jewels whence we procured our Burgers' jowls!

A

P.S. As to the second matter...

PS. And another question: so far as I have seen, there has not tripped one single word from your lips re: The Events of Sunday.

PPS. Buffon is truly a wonder.

Mais, ça n'est pas tout à fait vrai:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=83048#83048

... and my signature has been (temporarily) changed:
Grazie agli Azzurri!
Forza Italia!!

It was an exciting game and for me and my fellow fans of gli Azzurri a thrilling victory, though I would have preferred a non-vincitori-ai-rigori kind of (pk) finish.

The French team was magnificent, the Italian team just a little better at the right time. I enjoyed watching the French squad immensely in their earlier games (at least the two after the group round) and find it really regrettable that their captain let them down so badly in the end. Frankly, the difference between the two teams came down to this: Buffon was the better goalie and Cannavaro the better captain, a real leader and a tremoundous defensive player... tenacious and intelligent... from Campania too...

Aaron, Beth prefers to omit the T portion, making a bacon/lettuce/mayo sandwich.

It's hard to argue with.

When she omits the L, too, and it becomes a bacon and mayo sandwich, I sometimes plan an intervention. And then I look at our weights and cholesterol counts and realize I have no room to talk.

A bacon and avocado sandwich tastes pretty good.

Iceberg lettuce became at some point an object of scorn but I think that's silly. As someone who grew up eating dandelions and escarole and endive, yes, it is relatively bland. But I've always liked it's slight sweet flavour and it is from a textural standpoint really great. I find no interference from iceberg to a BLT or other such hand-held weapons with regard to flavour and the textural addition is why it's there to my mind. The tomato is flavourful and cool, the lettuce cool and crisp, the bacon crisp (I actually don't need mine all that crisp) and hot... nice partial overlap there with those three ingredients... I guess one could add that the bacon is also fatty and the mayo overlaps partly there with mouth-feel but again there is contrast in temperature betwen the bacon and the mayo... the texture of the bread is a variable... toasting is a reasonable option...

Anyway, I like the fully loaded version and, on reflection, it's really a marvelously complex little dish. Thanks again to tLD (and ER) for giving me cause to ponder this noble sandwich.

Antonius

gleam wrote:It seems like Burger's has been getting much better distribution in the past year or so. I've bought their smoked jowl at Jewel (Roosevelt and Ashland, but I've seen it at others), and perhaps A&A bought theirs there, too.

Ed,

Burger’s is now sold even at Billy’s (you know where I’m talking about; corner of Ridgeland and Madison).

Louisa Chu wrote:Try using bacon fat to make your mayo.

Brilliant! That would work, right?

Bruce wrote:I don't remember if you got some of the bacon after my trip to GA. But that bacon does make a great BLT even with good, but not great tomatoes.

Yes, I did get some of that excellent bacon…and I ate it all straightup before it could be elaborated into sandwiches.

I grew up in a semi kosher home and so my mother made tomato and lettuce on toast with mayo. I bet it still would be good with a good crusty bread, crisp lettuce and home grown tomatoes.
Paulette

David Hammond wrote:

Louisa Chu wrote:Try using bacon fat to make your mayo.

Brilliant! That would work, right?

I missed this before... very interesting, Louisa... But then, without the olive oil in the mayo (at least in the theoretical perfect world), boy, that's a cardiologist's dream... I'd love to try it though...

A

Being Captain Anti-Mayo, I've never much enjoyed the BLT... but the avocado version sounds like it might just work: the BLAT. Hmm... add a few juliennes of roasted jalapeno pepper and red onion, and we might just have a masterpiece!

paulette wrote:I grew up in a semi kosher home and so my mother made tomato and lettuce on toast with mayo. I bet it still would be good with a good crusty bread, crisp lettuce and home grown tomatoes.
Paulette

When my grandmother had a bumper crop of tomatoes, a T sandwich was a common snack - tomatoes w/salt, mayo, bread. It was quite good but only with perfectly ripe tomatoes.

The Lovely Donna wrote:I suggested we do BLT's last night.

Lovely Donna,

Home made Evil Ronnie bread BLT's sound delicious, and with jowl bacon, wow!

I've had some good bacon in the last 5-6 months, home made from Mike G, MAG and the Bob in Ga bacon Bruce is talking about. I also like Nueske's and Paulina Market's single, not double, smoked bacon cut thick.

Unfortunately, the last bacon I had was not-so-good or, more accurately, not to my taste. It was thick cut Bobak bacon I bought at Marketplace on Oakton, they slice in store. The problem was, and this may very well be a positive for others, the bacon was very lean, more like Canadian bacon, and never got crisp.

With the Bobak bacon there was no, and I mean none, rendered fat in the pan, in fact I added a little olive oil in the hopes of getting it to crisp. Ok flavor, though it was more of a ham than bacon flavor, not something I will buy again.

Enjoy,
Gary

For a generally available, pretty high quality bacon, I rely upon the three-pack bacon from Canada available at Costco. It's very meaty, but has enough fat to render to an excellent crisp. Tasty. It's not Nueske's of course, but then again, it puts Oscar Meyer and the Usual Suspects to shame.

BTW, I'm not talking about the maple-flavored stuff available in the cheese, meat, etc. open coolers. I'm talking about the stuff available in the cooler cabinets.

Geo

Louisa Chu wrote:
Try using bacon fat to make your mayo.

That's a really interesting idea, Louisa. I've got a bunch of deeply flavorful fat leftover from making pork belly confit. Your suggestion has me thinking about using that to make a mayonnaise. Do you think that would work for BLT's and BLAT's and other sandwiches? (I fried up some of the confit and it made the most delicious BLT).

Bill/SFNM

i've always loved BLT's, but i always felt there was something missing. for me, the answer was twofold, first replacing lettuce with arugula makes a tremendous difference-its fantastic. also, but less important, i add a shmear of Mrs. Renfro's jalepeno salsa, which is all jalepeno, no tomato, it's medium hot and lasts for months and months in the refrigerator. i buy it at treasure island but think it's elsewhere as well. it doesn't replace tomato based salsas, but in its own right is a wonder. i also buy my bacon at the green city market. the growing power people have a very delicious thick sliced bacon at their booth.

G Wiv wrote:Unfortunately, the last bacon I had was not-so-good or, more accurately, not to my taste. It was thick cut Bobak bacon I bought at Marketplace on Oakton, they slice in store. The problem was, and this may very well be a positive for others, the bacon was very lean, more like Canadian bacon, and never got crisp.

With the Bobak bacon there was no, and I mean none, rendered fat in the pan, in fact I added a little olive oil in the hopes of getting it to crisp. Ok flavor, though it was more of a ham than bacon flavor, not something I will buy again.

Enjoy,
Gary

Interesting. It must be a Polish bacon "thing" because bacon I've purchased from Caputo's deli, which is labeled as being from Andy's Deli on Division, nets the same results you described. Very little rendered fat in the pan. It was very odd.

Count me in as well among the BLT fans. I'm not a fan, however, of the many BLT+ menu items out there (e.g. the ubiquitous BLT with turkey) but I recently saw one I'm definitely going to try. The next time someone takes me to Morton's for lunch (it has happened--twice in the last three years-- so I have hope for the future) I'm going to eschew the beef and try their crab cake BLT.

Ann Fisher wrote:Count me in as well among the BLT fans. I'm not a fan, however, of the many BLT+ menu items out there (e.g. the ubiquitous BLT with turkey) but I recently saw one I'm definitely going to try. The next time someone takes me to Morton's for lunch (it has happened--twice in the last three years-- so I have hope for the future) I'm going to eschew the beef and try their crab cake BLT.

Ann, that beef and crab cake BLT sounds good, but at what point does the sandwich in question become NOT-BLT?

Me, I like my BLTs on Italian bread, loaded with beef and gravy and giardiniera, hold the bacon, lettuce and tomato.

Hammond

justjoan wrote:i also buy my bacon at the green city market. the growing power people have a very delicious thick sliced bacon at their booth.

I got some very good bacon as well from the Growing Power folks, although I will note that it (at least the batch I got) is a bit salty. It is from some farm in Wisconsin. It renders tons of fat, which I like as I typically store it up for later cooking.

Around this time of year I like making "greenies" -- BLTs with fried green tomatoes.

The BLT is not supposed to be healthy, right ?