A sandwich of crisp bacon, lettuce and tomato bound with mayonnaise between two slices of toasted bread, named for its three core ingredients. It is a diner and luncheonette staple built on a deliberately small set of components, in which the quality of the tomato and the crispness of the bacon carry the whole. The bread is toasted so it holds against the tomato's moisture, and the sandwich is usually cut in half on the diagonal and held together with picks.
The BLT is generally held to be a simplified descendant of the club sandwich, which by the turn of the twentieth century already layered bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise with poultry. A 1903 club-sandwich recipe in the Good Housekeeping Everyday Cook Book already contained the BLT's four elements, and food writer Michele Anna Jordan dates an early reference to the standalone combination to a 1903 magazine article. The three-letter abbreviation itself is believed to have arisen in the 1940s as American diner waitstaff shorthand; by 1958 Hellmann's was advertising its mayonnaise as traditional on the sandwich.
The first bite is a study in contrast: crackling, salty-smoky bacon against cool crisp lettuce and the soft, acidic burst of ripe tomato, all carried on toast that crunches at the edges. The mayonnaise binds and adds a cool, rich slick that ties the smoke and acid together. A good one lives or dies on a summer tomato at peak ripeness and bacon fried properly crisp; a pale winter tomato or limp bacon collapses the whole balance. It eats juicy, with the tomato threatening to slip free.
Bacon is rendered until its fat liquefies and the proteins crisp, the cure and smoke concentrating into the sandwich's dominant savoury note. Toasting the bread by Maillard browning does double duty: it builds crunch and, critically, sets a firmer, less absorbent surface that resists going soggy under the tomato's juice and the mayonnaise. The mayonnaise is an oil-in-water emulsion stabilised by egg yolk lecithin, which both lubricates and acts as a moisture barrier between the wet tomato and the bread, while its acidity balances the bacon's salt and fat.
Variations
Common additions push it toward the club: avocado makes a BLAT, a fried egg or sliced turkey turns it into a fuller meal, and cheese is frequently added. Regional and gourmet versions swap in heirloom tomatoes, thick-cut or candied bacon, sourdough or brioche, and aioli or herbed mayonnaise in place of plain. The club sandwich, its triple-decker ancestor, remains the closest relative, distinguished chiefly by the added layer of poultry and the third slice of bread.
On the Palate
Where BLT sits in the American flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2
How it's made
6 steps · 15 min
- 16 min
Fry the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until deeply crisp, then drain on paper towels.
Watch outFry the bacon until deeply crisp — limp bacon is the fastest way to a floppy, disappointing sandwich.
- 22 min
Toast four slices of bread until golden and firm.
Watch outToast the bread firm and golden — that dried, browned surface is what resists going soggy under the tomato's juice.
- 31 min
Spread mayonnaise on one side of each toasted slice.
- 42 min
Lay lettuce and thick tomato slices on two of the slices and season the tomato with salt and pepper.
- 51 min
Arrange the crisp bacon over the tomato.
- 62 min
Close each sandwich with a second slice, secure with picks, cut on the diagonal and serve.
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