My Grandmother’s 1-Ingredient Upgrade for the Best BLT Sandwiches

I grew up in the Midwest, where it's as easy to grow tomatoes as it is to love bacon. My grandmother made the best bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches the world has ever known.

Of course, her homegrown tomatoes had a lot to do with her sandwich prowess. She grew a breed called Mortgage Lifter that thrived in the hot, humid Wisconsin summers and grew so large, she had to trellis them to the side of the garage where they would reach the eaves by early August.

Using great homegrown tomatoes wasn’t the only thing that made her BLT the best. My grandpa was an absolute stickler for texture in his food, and he insisted on extra-crispy bacon and toast when it came to his sandwich.

However, juicy tomatoes are the enemy of crispness, so my grandma had a trick: She would salt sliced tomatoes and set them aside to drain on a paper towel while she went about preparing the rest of the ingredients. 

Why Salt Wick Tomatoes? 

It seems a bit counterintuitive to remove moisture from tomatoes. Juiciness is normally a good thing, right? Not when it comes to sandwiches. Moisture makes bacon soggy, bread squishy, and ultimately causes sandwiches to fall apart well before you’re done eating them.

Salting draws excess moisture out of tomatoes, but that’s not the only reason to sprinkle salt on tomatoes. Salt seasons tomatoes and brings out their deep, sweet flavor the same way it highlights the flavor of a french fry or a peanut. You won’t taste the salt when you salt wick a tomato, but you will enjoy a tomato that tastes more tomato-y.

Salt wicking tomatoes works for club sandwiches, grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, and even for Niçoise salads where you’re not keen on a puddle of juices at the bottom of your salad plate. 

How to Salt Wick Tomatoes for the Best BLT 

I still use grandma’s trick when the extra-juicy late summer tomatoes come into season. It takes virtually no time and it’s always worth the step and paper towels. Here’s how to do it:

1. Cut out the hard core of the tomato with a paring knife. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the tomatoes through their equator into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
2. Sprinkle the tomatoes with a three-finger pinch of sea salt on both sides. Arrange the tomatoes on two layers of paper towels on a cutting board and set aside for 10 minutes while cooking the bacon, making the toast, and preparing the lettuce.
3. Blot the tops of the tomatoes dry with paper towels to remove excess salt and moisture.
4. Build the sandwiches, spreading one slice of toast generously with mayonnaise, followed by a layer of lettuce, then the tomatoes, the bacon, and the second slice of toast. I personally add a thin layer of ketchup on the slice of toast closest to the bacon for a sweet-acidic hit, but that’s not always necessary when you’ve got really great tomatoes.