I was very surprised recently to learn that what I thought was a quintessentially American sandwich was actually British in origin!!! Taste Atlas says that the BLT first appeared in British cookbooks in the 1920’s but that it only gained popularity in the U.S.A in the post-war period. It further surprised me to learn that the BLT was, in 2019 ranked as the UK’s favourite sandwich but only came in 6th in the United States!
I guess though, for anyone who is new to Earth…first, hi, welcome, glad you found me! Second, BLT stands for bacon, lettuce, tomato being the three key ingredients of this sandwich.
I LOVE a BLT and it’s avocado-ey cousin the BLAT.
Via Taste Atlas
I was hoping to find a classic BLT in the American chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. Not that I need an excuse to make one. However, I was simultaneously delighted and horrified to see their idea of a BLT. Here’s their recipe:
The GHWC BLT – The Pros
You will notice that Good Housekeeping calls it a Bacon, Tomato and Lettuce Sandwich. Which if you look at my picture above is actually my preferred way of layering. I don’t understand why you would go to the bother of getting nice bread and toasting it, only to have the tomato making it all soggy and gross half way through eating it.
My preferred version – from the top-down: toasted bread, bacon, tomato, lettuce mayo, toasted bread. So, thank you Good Housekeeping for getting the order correct!
An potato chips and pickles on the side are always a good idea!
I am ambivalent about whether or not you have a double or single decker BLT. I do think though that the second piece of bread requires either another condiment or another dab of mayonnaise. My preferred option is some Dijon Mustard.
I made my BLT on holiday and we only had some very hefty olive sourdough which normally would not be my choice for a BLT. This was a very heavy bread so double decking my sandwich was not an option – the bread would have overpowered everything. (The olives did make a tasty, if not traditional, alternative!).
The GHWC BLT – The Con
In the words of Amy Winehouse, what kind of fuckery is this?
Who puts processed cheese on their BLT?
You may as well just take a dump on it.
A little bit of Brie, some vintage cheddar? I”m here for it.
Processed cheese?
A Few BLT Questions For You
Do you love a BLT? Or do you prefer a BTL?
Double or Single Decker?
What’s your preferred bread?
Iceberg or fancy lettuce?
What degree of crisp of the bacon? I like my bacon so crisp it is snappable!
Mustard?
Avocado?
Other additions? (If you say processed cheese, you’re dead to me)
Is the BLT the best sandwich ever? Or only the 6th best?
I made Oysters Kilpatrick recently because I thought they might make a nice Irish-themed edition of Name Plates for St Patrick’s Day. I should have probably done some research before cooking them because, despite their Irish-sounding name, Oysters Kikpatrick are not Irish! And they may actually not even be called Oysters Kilpatrick!
So, if they are not Irish, where are they from? These yummy bites of seafood heaven were created by the chef of the Palm Court Restaurant in San Francisco’s Place Hotel, Ernest Arbogast. He named the dish after Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick, who managed the hotel from 1894 to 1914. Kirkpatrick was also not Irish coming from American and Scottish stock.
Oh, and yes, you read that correctly. Oysters Kilpatrick is named after John Kirkpatrick. How and why the change to Kilpatrick came about seems to be lost in history. Also, there are plenty of places that call the dish Oysters Kirkpatrick. Initially, I thought there might be variations due to geography but I found two restaurants in the same city serving them but one was Kirk and one was Kil…
Just to further confuse the issue there are several sites on the interwebs that call this an Australian recipe!!!
Seriously, is this the most confounding recipe ever? First, they’re not Irish, second, it has two names! What is going on? Choose a lane, Oysters Kilpatrick!
Oysters Kilpatrick – The Recipe
If the name is confusing then the ingredients also seem to change at will – oysters, bacon and Worchestershire sauce are the mainstays but to these can be added:
Cheese (Errgghhh…as much as I usually love cheese that one can go get shucked!)
I used Matt Preston’s recipe which contains Soy Sauce which is also not a conventional addition to Oysters Kilpatrick. However, seeing as everything else is confusing about this recipe…why the shell not? It was an absolute pearl of a recipe!
Have a great week my friends! And if you make these Oysters Kilpatrick, make sure you share them around. You don’t want anyone to think you are shellfish!
And tell me – what’s your preferred name? Kilpatrick or Kirkpatrick?
I’m not exactly sure where this recipe for Asparagus and Bacon Tartlets came from. It has obviously been clipped from a magazine and sticky taped to a piece of paper. But when? And by whom? It has been floating around in my collection of “Recipes to Cook” for as long as I can remember.
The recipe gives both imperial and metric measurements which would indicate it comes from some time after 1970 which is when Australia went metric but not too far after because people still understood imperial measures. So it likely was not me who clipped it but whether it was my mum or my nana or a complete stranger I do not know!
Well, whoever clipped it so it could fall into my hands deserves a round of applause because I thought these were really delicious. Emphasis on the” I” there. The fussiest eater in the world was not convinced. “What’s in these? It is cream? It’s not like the usual quiche you make.”
“I used cream cheese”
“It’s too much”
“Well…you did eat six of them….”
Both sides make a fair point here. The Asparagus and Bacon Tartlets are richer than a normal quiche, primarily due to the cream cheese filling. But you also don’t have to eat half a dozen of them in one sitting.
I made these twice recently which is something I rarely do with recipes for the blog. Usually, I make something, eat it, blog it and move on. However, the first time I made the tartlets I used fresh asparagus. I was going to post that version. But it felt like cheating. Of course a fresh asparagus and bacon tart was going to be amazing. It’s asparagus! And bacon! And for those of us who like a little bit of rich – cream cheese!. Would these taste as good using tinned asparagus?
They weren’t quite as good as the fresh version but they were still really good. And I am not being an asparagus snob here. I grew up on tinned asparagus. My nana’s asparagus rolls which only ever used tinned asparagus are one of my top ten things to eat ever! The only reason I have not posted that recipe here is that I honestly think I could not do nana’s memory justice as my version would never live up to hers!
Anyway…that’s given me some food for thought…maybe I will post that recipe one day. But as for the Asparagus and Bacon Tartlets? They’re really good. And if you find them too rich? Stop at four, or two or one.
These also reheat up well and I thought they were also quite nice to eat cold.
They are also perfect fare for a socially distanced picnic in the park!
Isn’t Dublin Coddle the most adorable name for anything ever?
It sounds like a cuddle and that is exactly what you are going to get from this hearty and warming mix of sausages, cabbage, bacon and potatoes.
I don’t seem to have the best of luck with Irish recipes (remember the corned beef potato salad?)
I had planned to make a totally safe homemade Irish Cream because hot damn do I love a little bit of Bailey’s! However what they don’t tell you in most recipes for it is that, because it contains fresh cream, homemade Irish cream has a fairly limited lifespan. As I am trying to moderate my diet and alcohol intake at the moment drinking a whole bottle of whiskey and a shit ton of cream over the space of about 5 five days did not seem like a viable option.
Fun…just not a viable diet option!
🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
So Dublin Coddle it was. And whilst this was nowhere near as awful as the debacle that was the potato salad, the recipe I used for Dublin Coddle (sorry I cannot remember from whence it came) was not without problems.
It asked that you layer thinly sliced potatoes into the bottom of a baking dish then piled your sauteed cabbage, onion and bacon on top and topped that with sausages. Then you added stock to the dish.
And therein lay the problem. Even though I cooked this for absolutely AGES, the potatoes at the bottom didn’t cook at that well and were totally soggy. And, as viewers of the British Bake Off know all too well, no one likes a soggy bottom!
This was good but I wonder how much better it would have been if the potatoes had gone on the top and gone all crispy and delicious?
I will actually make it that way next time and update you on how it turns out! The good thing about this recipe is that it was traditionally made from leftovers so you can play around with ingredients and cooking techniques as much as you like!
As a group we decided that our December book club option would be “healthy”. We had three options to choose from – a gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free dessert book – yeah I know…why bother right? The second was tempting. It was a book espousing the benefits of the alkaline diet. I was utterly sold on the health benefits then I read that the book was endorsed by Victoria Beckham. I refuse to take recipe endorsements from someone who looks like they haven’t eaten in the last 15 years, so, the only choice for me this time round was Paleo
Plus, I have a teeny tiny secret crush on Pete…just try take a deep look into those baby blue eyes and tell me I’m wrong. Bad move. You would have had a much better chance to point out that the mouthwateringly super delicious kebab he’s holding is made from beef heart. Yecchhh…
Come back Posh Spice, all is forgiven.
Then again, he has lovely white teeth too.
So, via a process of reasoning that was basically…I’d rather eat the pages of the book..posh spice…you’re hot…I’m going paleo. And in the words of those modern-day philosophers George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley
If you’re gonna do it, do it right”
I’m doing this all the way. Two weeks of paleo meals should be enough for me to judge the book and the diet. And you know paleo should be easy, it’s meat and veggies right?. Which is pretty much what I already eat. This is going to be great!!!! I can’t wait…
One Week Ago
Dear Paleo Diary,
You don’t mind of I call you Pete do you? It makes feel like I’m actually talking to you. Ok, now I don’t want to sound like some whiny little bitch right from the start but I thought this was supposed to be meat and veggies.
So how come I have just spent a small fortune buy a ton of stuff, some of which I had never ever heard of?
Buckwheat
Linseeds
Slippery Elm Powder
Chia Seeds
Maca Powder
Pau D’arco Capsules
Goji Berries
Cacao Powder
They refused to sell me the magnesium chloride I needed for the cashew turmeric spread. They said they sell it as bath salts and they could not condone me eating it.
WTF Pete? Seriously. What? The? Fuck?
And for the love of hopscotching Jesus:
Macadamia Nuts
Almonds
Cashews
Pine Nuts
Pepitas
Sunflower Seeds
Do you have any idea how much all that is going to cost? And that’s just for the muesli.
If I turn over the next page and you tell me I also need to buy quinoa, I’m going to find you and punch you right in your pearlywhite teeth.
Twice.
Once for the quinoa. Once for calling your daughter Chilli. Can we all just get over the foodie people naming their children after ingredients? They’re children. Not recipe inspirations.
Bastard.
Saturday.
Dear Pete,
My shopping bill for the week is DOUBLE what is normally is. But my seeds and nuts are soaking for my muesli and crackers.
Paleo Seed Cracker Mixture Post Soaking
I’m on top of this.
I did buy another book on Paleo because I found your breakfast and work lunch options a little limited. Also, I looked into making some of your cultured or fermented vegetables. They take a minimum of two weeks to ferment so that’s not happening. I have some kimchi in my fridge. That will have to do.
Getting worried. How will I survive without my basic food groups – cheese, chocolate and chickpeas? What about booze? Is that Paleo? Surely those cavemen were fermenting something? And now we come to one of the problems I am having with this Paleo diet thing. Everyone seems to have their own idea of what is and isn’t allowed.
A couple of sites I looked at were kind of ambivalent about alcohol. They were a little bit like…well, you really shouldn’t but if you feel you must then some choices are more Paleo than others. Other sites? Absolutely forbid it.
Same with bacon.
Really, annoyingly same with the buckwheat which is now soaking for my crackers and muesli….
Bastard.
Sunday
Pete, you gobshite,
I already hate this. And it’s only Day One. Woke up dying for a cup of coffee.
Coffee is another one of those yes / no / maybe items on Paleo.
I had bought almond milk for my muesli so I was good for the dairy.
Turns out coffee with almond milk and no sugar sucks. Bye bye coffee, it was fun knowing you.
I put my crackers in the oven, where they needed to cook for 6-8 hours and tootled off to Body Balance class. BTW – they looked disgusting. Overnight they had gone all gelatinous and gloopy. See the photo above.
Back from Body Balance and quite hungry. However, my crackers still have another seven hours to cook and don’t get me started on the muesli.
Breakfast
A slice of ham
Half an avocado
A peach.
The muesli is a hot mess. Pete, you say to dry the soaked nuts and seeds with paper towel or a dish cloth. Problem is, the chia has gone all to jelly and sticks to everything Eventually I decide to put the nuts in the oven with the crackers to dry them out,
Lunch
A slice of ham
Half an avocado
A handful of almonds.
3:00pm
The crackers are done and they are awesome. The muesli ingredients are still wet. Decision time. I can cook some Paleo muffins from the other book so I will have something for breakfast tomorrow.
Paleo Seed Crackers2
But then the nuts will need to come out of the oven because they need to cook at 50º. And the muffins need to cook at a normal temperature.
4:00pm
Nuts out, muffins in. If sounds like some vague sexual innuendo so be it. I’m too hungry to care.
5:00pm.
The muffins are good. Well they would have been, if I could have tasted them. I ate the first one so quickly I burnt all my taste buds off.
Breakfast Muffins
5:30pm
Have started making the Lamb Harira which will be my lunch for the next few days. Quelle surprise the buckwheat needs to soak overnight and the soup needs to cook for four hours.
NOT. FUCKING. HAPPENING.
The buckwheat is going to soak for considerably less than that. At which time it will be added to the soup. According to some websites I shouldn’t even be eating it anyway. The only reason I’m even bothering with it is that I had to buy it specially so there is no way I’m not using it.
10:00pm
The harira is ready. It’s a bit more like a stew than a soup, I think the buckwheat sucked up some of the liquid. Tastes pretty damn good though. Mind you, a wet paper bag would taste good about now.
11:00pm
The m****er f***king muesli is still not dry.
I’m fed up and I’m going to bed.
Best thing I’ve eaten all day was the muffins. And they came from the other book.
Breakfast Muffins 3
Bastard. I hate you. And your baby blue eyes.
PS. They say one the side effects of the Paleo diet is a certain crankiness. Thank goodness I haven’t experienced anything like that and I am still my sweet and sunny self.
Have a fabulous week. And eat some cheese and hummus for me!!!
