Breakfast, Luncheon, and Timeless: The Glories of the BLT
By: Andrew Donaldson
Tags: Culture, Sandwich, History, Food

Breakfast, Luncheon, and Timeless: The Glories of the BLT

The BLT: The branding is good, the history is amazing, and above all else it just tastes great

Photo by Andrew Donaldson

The thing about food is, if you go back far enough, just about every version, style, and recipe has some story that has a practical reason for how it came into being. Though just about every food historian has a different take on the subject, the term “sandwich” for throwing something between slices of bread for easy consumption is just like that.

The history of sandwiches is rich and varied. China had their Baozi (steamed bun with filling, and if you’ve never, you need to get your life together and seek them out) for a hundred some odd years before the Roman Emperor Constantine got religion and changed Western history. Everything you need to make a BLT existed and was readily available in the Eternal City during the Pax Romana. Nearly every culture between then and now has some variation of portable food on some kind of bread. But that gets missed out on among the English-speaking west, since what modern times call a sandwich is attributed to a guy whose title was, handily enough, the Earl of Sandwich.

John Montagu wasn’t even the first one of those either, being the 4th of his name as it were, but he became a noted gambler, philanderer, and apparently rush eater. As the legend goes, in 1762 he was so engrossed in a 24 hour gambling binge he demanded sustenance he could consume without his game being interrupted. Dutifully, some poor soul in the kitchen who was forever robbed of the credit the high rolling Earl would get sent up meat between two slices of toast.

Now obviously, that wasn’t the first time meat and bread met in one handful. He probably had them frequently, having picked up the idea from his own travels in the Eastern Mediterranean where the Greeks and Turks had been putting things between pita bread for half of forever before the Pax Britannia showed up on their shores. But history is funny like that. The Romans and Chinese had what we would call a sandwich today for 1700 years before a “proper gentleman” got the branding right. Sandwiches have been called such ever since in the west. In England, they became omnipresent in small form as tea sandwiches, and heartier fare for luncheon and other occasions.

But it was no smooth evolution for the sandwich once it imported to the colonies that would rebel and become America. Take my personal favorite sandwich, the BLT. While known far and wide to stand for Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato, if you had a sandwich in 1800s America, it very well could have meant Bread, Lump of butter, and Tongue.

Yes, tongue. Seriously.

“The Improved Housewife” printed in 1844 suggested “Cut, and spread neatly with butter, slices of biscuit, placing between every two pieces, a very thin slice of tongue. Lean ham, or the white meat of fowl may be substituted for the tongue.”

By 1866, Mrs. Crowen’s American Lady’s Cookery Book things had progressed. “Sandwiches may be made with cheese, sliced very thin between each two slices of buttered bread, also cold boiled eggs sliced, for luncheon; stewed fruit of jelly or preserve spread thin over buttered bread, makes a fine sandwich for lunch. Any cold meat sliced thin may be made a sandwich; it is generally spread with made mustard; tho most delectable are those made with boiled smoked tongue or ham.”

Let us pause for a moment and give thanks for living in the modern era…Amen.

All that sandwich history, itself a mismatch of ingredients mostly known to the Romans but finding a winding path to our modern hands, can still be found in something as relatively simple as the BLT. Mayonnaise? That’s an 18th century French contribution. Sliced bread? That’s been around but the modern version — the proverbial invention that everything great is the best since — became mechanical and mass produced in 1920s America. Bacon? Humans have been salting pork belly since at least 1500 BC, and there is some evidence of pigs being domesticated in China as early as 4000 BC. Lettuce? Egyptians, believe it or not, first cultivated what started as a weed in the fertile Nile valley in 2600 BC, some 1200 years before Moses and the Israelites got their Exodus on. That’s a lot of history culminating in what we think of as the simplest of sandwiches

The BLT moniker dates from much more recent times, as the rise of lunch counters and diners in 20th century America created its own language and jargon for quickly ordering food in a hurry. Though there are more complex sandwiches, like its souped-up cousin the club sandwich, and much more famous sandwiches like the grilled cheese, it might be the most perfect form of sandwich. Protein, greens, grains, and veggies all in one place. Like a much more interesting and infinitely better tasting food pyramid from elementary school health class.

And it all works. The crunch of perfectly toasted bread. The mayo and tomato combine, and the salty awesomeness of the bacon cuts through, while the greens add a spacer to the whole thing. Nothing else is needed other than a crank of salt and pepper to taste. If you just want a few bites of balance and good, it’s hard to beat a BLT.

Not to mention customizable; like any simple culinary treat, the BLT modifications are legion. I’m not really a fan of plain lettuce, far preferring a mix of greens or even spinach to the overly watery feel of straight lettuce, especially if at a chain sandwich shop where the greenery can be of questionable vintage. The variety of tomatoes alone that are available can change the complexion of a BLT greatly. And that’s before the hundreds of varieties of bread and the dozens of ways to prepare, pump up, and otherwise supercharge the already awesomeness of God’s own gift to human mastication that is bacon.

While the 4th Earl of Sandwich’s claim as instigator of the one-handed meal is ridiculous, he nonetheless gets to be the namesake since opportunity met inspiration at just the right moment for the branding to take over. How it is with food, the taste is important but it’s the branding and marketing that really get the attention of folks, and of history. Which is the great part of a BLT: the branding is good, the history is amazing, and above all else it just tastes great. Regardless of where, when, or why you are eating it.