How to Make the Best Bacon Lettuce Tomato Sandwich (The BLT)

It's a hot day and you want a great sandwich. Burgers are too greasy, you've tried all the combinations at the sandwich chains. Nobody does hot dogs like they have at the baseball park. No, you need something you can do at home that's going to combine some of the greatest flavors on earth. You need a BLT!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bread
• Fresh tomato
• Fresh lettuce
• The ever-present but optional toaster
• Mayonnaise
• Delicious bacon

1. 
    
   Bacon, recognized as one of the world's essential flavors, right up their with chocolate

   BLTs may have originated from tea sandwiches in the late Victorian era, but you are hungry right now. They grew in popularity after World War II because supermarkets improved so much that they would usually have all the ingredients on the shelf at the same time. You could make a BLT and listen to Fibber McGee and Molly on the radio. Modern times had surely come. OK, fry up some bacon.

2. I said fry. Sure you can do bacon in a microwave, put it between paper towels and let it go for a minute or so per slice. The only problem with the microwave is it dries the bacon out, giving it a glass like texture. "This tastes like glass!" my father used to yell. But this may be the one thing he was right about. Bacon slowly cooked in a pan has a wonderful and delicious greasiness about it. Depending on the thickness of the bacon, use 3-4 slices per sandwich.

3. 
    

   While the bacon is sizzling and popping and making the dog go wild with anticipation, thinly slice from top to bottom a ripe red tomato. Beefsteak tomatoes are great and easy to slice, almost any kind will work except those weird Roma things.

4. 
    

   Wash your leaf lettuce, shake the water off, and blot it inside a paper towel. My daughter goes nuts if water from the lettuce touches the bread on the sandwich, but I can't give that too much energy because the dog is climbing my leg trying to get to the bacon.

5. 
    

   Toast the bread of your choice. A nice wide slice of bread will make for a larger sandwich. Some people prefer it not toasted, but the crunchiness adds something special to something that is otherwise a soggy combo. The toast gives it character. Put mayonnaise on both of the in sides of the bread.

6. 
    

   By now the bacon is done, you've split the first slice with the dog. Because you are getting really hungry, there is still work to do, and hey, there's a slice of bacon. The dog is woofing his or her piece down and thinking you must have been a divine birth. But now, you must build the sandwich. You have two pieces of mayoed bread. Put the sliced tomatoes on the inside bottom piece. This will give you the foundation you so require in your life. Next, layer the slices of bacon. Finally, apply the dry lettuce to the top, Mother Nature's treelike gesture. Cap it with the other slice of break, slice in half whatever direction appeals to you, and enjoy the best sandwich in the world.

Tips & Warnings

• Eat as slowly as possible. It's going to go fast anyway, and you could forget it all together if you don't savor each bite. Crunch crunch. Wow, this is the most amazing combination of pig and garden I have ever experienced. I wonder if the dog left any of his bacon on the carpet?
• BLTs are constantly in danger of becoming a controlled substance. Write your congressman/congresswoman. Send him or her this link. Tell them this is so good it should be illegal but don't make it so.