The Classic BLT

It's tomato time! That means for the next two or three weeks I will be canning tomatoes, pasta sauce, meat sauce, chili sauce, salsa, soup, juice and putting up tomatoes in any form I can. At the same time our consumption of raw tomatoes will sky rocket compared to other times of the year and we eat a lot of raw tomatoes. Home gardeners will attest that tomatoes have been available from their gardens for awhile. In many cases these tend to be heirlooms, cherry and beefsteak tomatoes as well as yellow and purple tomatoes. These are the same tomatoes that are either unavailable in the stores and/or high priced.

Did you know? - One of the worst things you can do is refrigerate tomatoes. Refrigerating causes a loss of flavour as well as a change in texture causing the tomato to become mealy. When growing your own tomatoes, leave on the vine and pick when ripe just before you are ready to use. The exception to this is if you are like me with upwards of 50 tomato plants sometimes you will want to do a clean pick of all ripened fruit. This encourages more fruit as well as prevents over ripening. In this case set aside what you can comfortably use in three or four days and turn the rest into sauce. When buying tomatoes buy vine ripe if possible and only buy what you will use within two or three days. Keep the tomatoes on the counter out of direct sunlight.

Beefsteak Tomato

Tomatoes have to be one of our favourite fruits. In general tomatoes fall into one of three categories - slicing, sauce or salad. We eat tomatoes in some form almost daily if not more often. As soon as the beefsteak tomatoes start to ripen the taste buds are in high gear patiently waiting for the first juicy bite. Beefsteak are huge, firm, meaty tomatoes bursting with a rich, robust flavour.

Beefsteak tomatoes are by far my favourite tomato as they are the perfect slicing tomato. Serve the slices sprinkled lightly with sea salt and fresh ground pepper or light dash of Italian seasoning as a side. Top the slices with fresh mozzarella and lightly grill.

Classic BLT

The classic bacon, lettuce and tomato aka BLT is simply just that, a toasted sandwich made with iceberg lettuce, slices of tomato and a few pieces of bacon. Mayonnaise, salt and pepper complete the sandwich. The origin of the classic BLT is unknown but I can remember when I was first introduced to them. I grew up in a small village that had one restaurant and the Met (Metropolitan Five & Dime). I loved the Met because it had a squeaky wood floor that smelled awesome. I was probably about 7 years old when my Mom took us on the bus [Mom never learned to drive] to the nearest larger town and there was the sign I recognized! My Mom took us to the Met for lunch. They had a long counter where you could sit on stools. We ordered BLTs and milkshakes. I was hooked on BLTs with the first bite! They are still my favourite sandwich.

With rising food costs everyone is looking for ways to save a bit on their grocery bill. BLTs make for a very frugal meal especially if you grow your own lettuce, tomatoes and make your own bread. However even with having to buy lettuce, tomatoes and bread they still fall into the very frugal meal category. The most expensive ingredient will be the bacon but bought on sale and using two pieces per sandwich the cost can be kept to a bare minimum. In fact a rough calculation at buying everything the total cost per sandwich works out to be about 56¢ so a family of four at 2 sandwiches each would cost $4.48 using a price of $2.49 per 500 g or 30¢ per slice. Again if you grow your own tomatoes and make your own bread you could easily shave off a good $1.50 making the total cost $2.98 for a family of four. That is what I would call a very frugal meal! Not only are BLTs frugal but they take under 15 minutes to make and really for some fit into the comfort meal category.

I am a BLT snob! Sorry, I won't settle for those anemic, cardboard tasting, flavourless tomatoes for a BLT. Well I won't settle using those at all for anything so perhaps I am really a tomato snob. The best tomatoes for a BLT are one of the beefsteak varieties. Ideally it should be picked while still warm from the sun's kisses and sliced within minutes of picking. You really want this sandwich to be about the tomato with the other ingredients being accents. Each slice should be about ⅝ inch thick. One slice should cover almost the entire slice of bread.

Method: Toast bread. Fry or bake the bacon (not too crisp). Spread Miracle Whip® or mayonnaise on each slice of toast. Place a nice layer of crisp iceberg lettuce on one slice followed by a thick slice of beefsteak tomato. Sprinkle on sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Add two or three pieces of bacon and the other slice of toast. Cut the sandwich in half.