So that’s it…

From “The Independent” out of Great Britain…

Experts at Leeds University spent more than 1,000 hours tasting 700 variations of the bacon sandwich to cook up a formula for the perfect butty. The secret lies in how crispy and crunchy your rashers are. Their recipe for success is N = C + {fb (cm) . fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc . ta where N = force in Newtons required to break the cooked bacon, fb = function of the bacon type, fc = function of the condiment/filling effect, Ts = serving temperature, tc = cooking time, ta = time or duration of application of condiment or filling, cm = cooking method and C = Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.

Let me restate that for you:

N = C + {fb (cm) . fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc . ta

When you put it like that, it ALL makes sense!

Over that last 10 years or so, as I was watching basic cable programming, I would see a commercial for a joint called Sonic?  Why the heck was this burger joint advertising with a national cable buy when they had NO stores in a whole bunch of states?  The answer, they were softening us up!

Michigan got it’s first Sonic just over a year ago in St. Clair Shores and this week, they opened up a new location in the heart of Oakland County.  It, like the first store opening, made the paper and I believe a TV outlet or two.

What’s so special about Sonic?  I think it’s the novelty of the drive-in concept. Some may say it’s their 168,894 drink flavor combinations.  Other may just be big fans of tots (more on that later).  Whatever it is, it has developed a following.

This was my first trip ever to Sonic and probably won’t be my last.

Enough jibber-jabbin’, let’s get down to bacon business. For the “Fast Food Friday” test, we ordered both the bacon cheeseburger AND the BLT.  Let’s start with the BLT…

 

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This site has been around for a while, but I am just discovering it’s near hypnotic spell…

It’s called SCANWICHES and it’s concept is so simple…buy/make a sandwich, cut it in half and then scan it! 

I was half tempted to do this with the burgers in our “Fast Food Friday” segment, but then I’d just feel like a massive hack.  So instead, I found a few bacon sandwiches that I thought I’d share with you.

Some more great bacon sandwich photos after the jump… [Read more →]

Some say why, I say why wouldn’t you?!?

photo by Tom Lampe

This is Tom Coghill, owner of a little placed called Iron Barley in South St. Louis. That tray he is holding is FILLED with bacon.  All those people behind him were working this weekend on putting together the worlds longest BLT sandwich!

The previous record was 169 feet.  Tom and his crew of 90 volunteers built their sandwich to a new record length of 179 feet, two inches!!!  In all they used 500 pounds of bacon, 1,280 pounds of tomatoes, 100 heads of lettuce and 48 gallons of mayo.

You can see more photos and video of the team building the record sandwich at the RiverfrontTimes.com.

Well done sir, well done!

Son of a monkey…looks like my entry into the “BLT from Scratch Challenge” just took a header.

See for yourself in TDB’s first vlog post.

Two problems:

A) You were right Rob (SHOUT OUT)!  I should have done more to protect those plants and

2) trying to find room in between what are now monster corn stalks to grow the lettuce was wishful thinking.

Lessons learned.

I’m still pressing forward though.  My niece just so happens to be growing some lettuce and doing quite well.  It might be time for Uncle Mike to go play farmers market at her house.

It’s been three weeks since my last update on my progress with “The BLT from Scratch Challenge” and those three weeks have been like watching paint dry.  It’s really a waiting game this month as the tomato and lettuce plants continue to grow.

Here’s a shot of the garden as of last Sunday:

The corn has taken off nicely…and on the other side, you can see the MUTANT cherry tomato plant that is essentially taking over the entire garden!!  We have had to trim the plant twice already, just to allow sunlight to get to other plants on that end of the garden, including my beefsteak tomatoes.  I have no idea what has caused this little plant to go crazy, I just hope we get a ton of fruit off it.

But I digress…

This is where we stand just six weeks from the Labor Day deadline… [Read more →]

You (my 10’s of readers) may recall a few weeks back when I opened our fridge and found something so foul that it sent me recoiling backward in horror while I let out one of my best Jaime Lee Curtis in “Halloween” screams…

There it was…a box of pre-cooked pork!  How did this get into our home?  What kind of cruel and sadistic trick was this? What did I do to tick Better Half off to the point that she would purchase this???

I can tell you my friends, I stared at the box for a long time. Finally I gave in.  I was going to do a comparison.  I had some bacon left from a Sunday breakfast and I decided to make BLT’s for dinner, one with my home cooked premium bacon and the other with this…at least that was the idea… [Read more →]

I’m not typically a “Arlo ’N’ Janis” fan, but this kinda of struck close to home this morning…from today’s “Detroit Free Press”

Have a great week everyone!

BLTfSC?  What the h-e-double hockey sticks does that mean Baird?

It’s my official short hand for “The BLT from Scratch Challenge” and right now I am in full on grow mode!!  I have until Labor Day to develop all the ingredients for my BLT to enter Chef Michael Ruhlman’s contest.

So, here’s my progress so far… [Read more →]

Oh my goodness…this little nugget came across two days ago and I am just now getting to it!

Chef Michael Ruhlman has issued a CHAL’LANGE (shouted in a faux french accent).

A collective challenge for all of you who really love to cook: Make a BLT from scratch.  No, this does not mean raising a piglet for the bacon or growing your own wheat to grind into flour.  Yes, extra credit for either, but I want this to be a challenge that everyone can accept, whether you live in a Manhattan walk-up or rural North Carolina, Alaska or suburban splendor: make a BLT from scratch, photograph it and send the photo to me.  If you blog, blog about it (and please link back to this post to encourage others to accept the challenge).

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