I can't wait to try this yummy recipe!!!!
These look great- good job. Best line- (about spattering bacon grease) "where I can pretend it doesn't exist" don't we all......
1
How long will it take untill we wake up to the fact that most of our breads are not healthy. Too many chemicals. The Times needs to do an article on bread made from home ground flour from wheat berries.
@Allan can we just once celebrate a nice recipe without a lecture. Yes, too many chemicals in a lot of our food, but one can make their own bread or by from an organic bakery and still make this recipe with wonderful, unsullied bread. Can we just focus on that. Save the criticism or critique for our personal tastes re the ingredients? Plus, I would think bacon is the less healthy aspect of this.
8
Mmmm...thinking a soft boiled egg wouldn't hurt this recipe one bit.
3
Microwave the bacon on a bacon platter. So easy and nearly fool proof. Clean-up is easy, too. As for bread... slice your own from a loaf then you get the amount of bread you like. Sourdough, lightly toasted resists becoming soggy.
Yummy, summer sandwich.
1
@JAN Sorry but it bothers me to cook food with plastic pans. I also question coffee pots that hold the grounds in a plastic container. If you are young none of this matters but as you age it really does.
"Also, all that splattering bacon grease stays behind the closed oven door, where I can pretend it doesn’t exist."
LOL. I always thought oven baked bacon was too slow, but I suppose I was thinking about it all wrong.
1
All sounds interesting, but it's tough to beat a classic BLT. What I would call classic is good quality bacon...could have enough to make it really meaty, but not necessarily; yes, in-season tomatoes, freshly sliced; red leaf lettuce; and then for the bread, lightly toasted, my favorite is a good sliced sourdough, but other kinds of sliced bread are good (whole wheat, even a pumpernickel is good). Just mayo on the bread. No mustard. A light dusting of salt and cracked pepper on the tomatoes, but not too much.
Avocado is a good addition, but I don't go much beyond that. Don't want to clutter it up. Maybe a leaf of arugula in addition to the lettuce to give it some spice.
But, the meal described by the author here is probably great. I'm just too wedded to tradition!
What ruins a BLT is simple: bad ingredients.
Bacon is pretty much good on anything, including nothing (eating it plain with your fingers).
Tortillas or bread or rolls, take your pick.
Tomatoes in season are God's way of telling us that He loves us.
Put them together, and it's heaven on earth.
2
I like to add a thin slice of cheddar to my BLTs sometimes. This sounds yummy! But I'm a traditionalist. I prefer plain old mayo, salt and pepper as seasoning on my BLTs.
1
I did this recipe & the spices were excellent and raised the bacon to a whole different level. I've run the gamut on bacon...Oscar Mayer beats them all. After all is said and done though, cooking the bacon in oil loses its flavor. The next night I had just an ordinary BLT...bacon and its flavor in the element it was meant to be in.
1
@Clare O'Hara
If Oscar Meyer is your idea of Bacon nirvana, you need to get out more often.
There are many kinds of bacon and different methods of preparation. Try harder.
2
The tortillas sound like a fun idea for BLTs once in a while. And, a touch of the Choluha sauce in the mayo-sure. But, the jalapeno, lime juice salsa seems to the miss the whole concept of a BLT, one of the great sandwiches of all time.
7
The tortillas in the photos appear to be flour, whereas the recipe calls for corn. I would think flour tortillas would be superior to corn in this recipe.
4
Line that bacon pan with aluminum foil. Makes clean up much easier and you can still save the grease if you want.
3
If you want your bacon to cook without the splatter-mess, put it on your choice of sheet, skillet, tray or griddle and cook it on the grill. This also keeps the greasy smoke from gathering on your ceiling or walls if you don't have a fan that can keep up with it.
1
Agree, except the bacon MUST BE NUESKE'S. Nothing else compares.
5
The bacon in the photo is clearly too well done.
Bacon is always best when fried gently on the stove top on low medium heat. ...just sayin '.
1
For me, a BLT means texture: crisp bacon, juicy tomato, crunchy lettuce, creamy mayo and super chewy toast. No toast= no BLT.
6
I feel sorry for Melissa Clark, who can't seem to find a decent enough tomato to make a real BLT with.
2
Pigs are intelligent sentient beings. Enough with the bacon already.
7
@ dc NYC
Being a panphage or omnivore, I dislike pigs for esthetic reasons. More than once I pleaded for ham made of wild boar -- unfortunately, not available from any reputable putveyor in Internet.
@dc So, for that matter, are many plants. Where does that leave you?
@dc
They are raised in hideous gestation crates where they cannot move. I use tofu bacon.
1
classic blt is one of those simple algorithmists that are perfect as is, no need to change the formula, just make sure that each one of the ingredients is stellar and u have a master piece. blt tacos for the dogs
Melissa, try cooking the bacon in the oven with foil on the sheet pan and place bacon strips on a wired oblong cake rack instead of having bacon swimming in fat, each strip will be beautiful in color, dry not greasy and most important, the strips do not shrink in size.
2
Your recipe calls for corn tortillas. In the pictures they look like flour tortillas. I prefer flour myself but maybe you can clarify.
2
I have never been partial to a particular foundation for which my BLT is build upon as along as it is toasted and crunchy. What I crave and insist are the combined flavors of fully RIPE tomatoes, crispy bacon, firm lettuce and mayo all together in that very first bite. This sandwich screams SUMMER, especially on warm, humid days.
3
@Marge Keller
thats right...ripe tomas
1
Me? Sid Wainer apple wood smoked bacon cooked crispy in the microwave. Sliced local tomatoes, a little farm grown red lettuce, a touch of cilantro and a thin spread of mayonnaise. On toasted local baked white bread. No fru fru.
2
I guess it's because I lived so long in the Southwest, but the recent penchant for calling something on a little, floppy flour tortilla a "taco" is making me grumpy. I felt the allure of a taco truck recently, only to be presented with a half-dozen such pitiful things. Say it ain't so.
1
This is a great recipe, and good ingredients made a big difference. I used dry cured bacon from Broadbent, I made the mayo with a good fruity olive oil, and I used lettuce and heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market.
2
Most of the problem is the bacon. We can't stand the quality of most store brands and get ours from our local butcher, thick sliced, not the kind you can read through, and either pan fried or broiled. Baked or microwaved is verboten. As to breads, again, we bake our own. Nothing worse than the soft store bought bread to ruin a good BLT and fall apart. Tomatoes? Home grown with more meat than liquid so they don't drip all over everything.
Florence Meat Market on Jones Street in GV. Bacon to kill for.
Bacon was meant to be fried. Anything else is simply baked or roasted pork. Frying caramelizes the bacon fat, giving it that satisfying, deep "bacon" flavor. And unless the splattered grease from oven baked bacon is thoroughly cleaned up you'll be smelling it and "smoking" it for a long time.
9
@R. Vasquez
I disagree. I love roasting bacon in the oven at 350 on a foil lined sheet pan, flipping once. Grilled to perfection in 25 minutes, no splattering. Throw the tinfoil away, and no mess to clean up. Bacon is perfectly flat and crisp.
4
@BasilQ and best of all, use Reynold's non-stick foil. Best kitchen advancement in the past 20 years LOL.
Because my sister did not like bread, our Mom used corn and flour tortillas for many traditional sandwiches. That was in the 1960’s...
I bake bacon on the grate of the broiler grill pan. To save cleanup I lightly grease the grate on both sides and line the grill pan itself with aluminum foil. I turn the bacon about halfway through the bake time. I like that the bacon grease falls through the slots in the grate to be collected in the foil below, and I drain the bacon again on a paper towel before serving.
I go for the B and forgo the L and the T. Two slices of thick cut bacon chewy not crispy on a toasted English muffin, mayonnaise, and fresh ground black pepper. Um good.
4
These may be good, but you can't really call them BLT's.
Too much bread? Toasted thin-sliced white bread never seemed like too much to me. The success of a BLT depends on the tomatoes, and those are coming from our garden fast and furious right now. We have BLT's often in tomato season, never in the winter.
12
@susaneber u got it right!
@susaneber Exactly. A BLT is a classic that needs no reinterpretation if you honor the basic components. Bacon taco with salsa is no improvement, it’s really kind of silly.
Great idea! Will do this weekend. Those look a lot like flour tortillas to me (the soft edge) but either would be wonderful.
2
my fav variation is a GLOB: grain bread, lettuce, onion and bacon. especially on dateless nights.
6
For the sauce I would finely dice a chipotle pepper (canned, in adobo sauce) and add it to unflavored greek yogurt or sour cream. Cool, tangy, and with a big warm, smoky & spicy hit. Other than that, the recipe sounds fabulous and I will make them this weekend. :)
1
What is the red sauce in the small cup served on the side?
@CatPerson: Probably unadulterated Cholula. One of the finest inventions ever.
@CatPersonrom From the text of the article I'd guess Cholula hot sauce.
@catperson Looks like decanted Cholula
Avocado is non-negotiable. And a little feta cheese doesn't hurt either. As to the alleged death dealing properties of this dish? That's '70's data, now woefully out of date.
9
Cotija cheese...similar to feta but Mexican. But if your market doesn’t have it feta’s not bad.
Se llama "tocino."
No matter bread or tortillas, quality bacon makes all the difference.
Garden tomatoes help a ton, in lieu of commercial.
A lady friend made me a couple BLTs featuring Niman Ranch bacon, garden tomatoes, and dark greens from the plot on a diagonally cut sourdough baguette. The contrast of the rich and bitter made it superior.
6
When I lived in Santa Fe my favorite quick breakfast was a bacon roll from Tia Sophia's restaurant near the Plaza. Three crisp slices of bacon wrapped in a soft flour tortilla smeared with red chile sauce...heaven in your mouth.
9
And these will clog your arteries, enhance every horrible disease state one might currently be in, and hasten death.
I don't expect to have this comment published, but I find it distressing that more healthy options are not celebrated and that the Times does not help inform the public on the dangers of animal based products in multiple ways, like with a warning label.
I am however grateful whenever you do feature vegan and vegetarian options, the benefits of a vegan diet, and the decades of science and peer reviewed research that show how such a diet extends the lives of those who adhere to it by a good many years, and enhances adherents quality of life and health status.
6
@FNW... Thanks, but I will take flavor over longevity any day. I think that one of America's greatest underlying problems is it's enormous fear of mortality. Which seems so silly and even hypocritical from a country as religious as ours.
21
@FNW
Endless research has clearly shown that moderation and complexity in all of your dietary intake is the best policy.
And vegans don't really live longer - it just seem that way to everyone who has to listen to them vegan-splain.
47
@FNW
". . . . that the Times does not help inform the public on the dangers of animal based products in multiple ways, like with a warning label.
Because this is a noted and much-visited OMNIVORE site, and we all make our own decisions about what is right for ourselves and tastes good. For me. . vegan fare is typically painfully without flavor and needing lots of salt and fat.
12
Love this idea. Daily Bacon (from Montana) - baked! The only way to fly!
Bacon cooks very well in a microwave oven. Use a dedicated bacon cooker or just wrap it in paper towels on a plate. Doneness is easily controlled, less greasy, and it's fast (20 sec or so per slice).
7
@Roger Schneider: it works great, but it takes a HALF ROLL of paper towels for one package of bacon. Kind of wasteful, no?
@Concerned Citizen
Yep, it works great, and two paper towels for 4 slices bacon does not = 1/2 roll per 1 pound bacon.
As with almost everything else, BLTs are better with butter than with mayonnaise.
3
@ Michael White Plains, NY
To me, BLT is just another variety of the national dish of hamburger with ketchup and tasteless vegetables. What would have been the US food scene, if there were a Department of National Gastronomy?
@Tuvw Xyz I don't understand your comment. Are you saying that BLTs are bad? There will always be a place in my life for the simple perfection of a BLT on white made with a brilliant garden tomato in August. It might be one of our national dishes, indeed, but I would never refer to it so pejoratively.
@Tuvw Xyz: hamburger is cow meat.
Bacon is pig meat.
Rimmed sheet pan for bacon is the only way to go. I like the Niman Ranch apple wood smoked uncured bacon as my Saturday morning splurge.
7
@Jay Amberg A cooking pan with wire rack is our preferred go to method for bacon.
7
Or use broiler pan with its grate. To save cleanup line the pan with foil and lightly grease the grate. If one came with your stove, that's one less pan to buy and store.