Building a Better BLT

Bradley Farm customer and food writer Regina Schrambling tells of her quest for a perfect local BLT using Ray’s heirloom tomatoes on the Epicurious blog!

Photograph by © Bob Sacha

Mistakes are made for learning, I guess. About the only thing I got right in our BLTs the other day was the tomato, a fat, juicy heirloom from Ray Bradley’s farm (that’s him suggestively hefting two more this morning).

I was feeling pretty smug that everything but the mayonnaise was local, and what follows pride? I started with multi-grain bread from Cayuga Pure Organics, which is amazing stuff but way too sturdy, not to mention flavorful, for a BLT. Now I know plain white toast is always better. I used mesclun for the L when crisp lettuce was needed for crunch (I wouldn’t go so far as to think iceberg, though; zookeepers don’t even feed that to animals because it’s so nutrient-free). And the B in the equation was not smoky enough. Luckily, I fried it to a crisp and laid in plenty of it. You should get a blast of bacon in every bite. At least I’m set for the season; the tomatoes are great this year after last year’s wipe-out.

Funny how sandwiches seem so simple when you really need a streak of architect in you to do them perfectly. I’m sure Elvis was even fussy about the proportion of bacon to bananas and peanut butter in his favorite.

One Response to “Building a Better BLT”

  1. Elton Karpel Says:

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