Why Untoasted Bread Is Actually The Best Option For Your BLT

When you eat a BLT, you typically bite into a sandwich layered with crispy bacon, crackling lettuce, and soft, moist, yet thick tomato (although there are other ingredients that will take your BLT to new heights should you desire). Those ingredients are usually layered between two slices of crunchy, toasted bread. While this sandwich composition generally satisfies, if you actually alter one of those ingredients, you'll be able to enjoy all of the components in your BLT much more. And that's by keeping your bread untoasted.

If your BLT has thick, untoasted bread, it provides a complementary textural contrast to your crunchy ingredients by providing soft outer layers that comfortably contain your ingredients, smoothen every bite, and leave fewer crumbs. This is in stark contrast to a BLT made with toasted bread, which can provide so much of one texture that it makes your BLT experience less enjoyable, messier, and perhaps even painful.

BLTs made with toasted bread lack textural balance because they contain four layers of crunchy ingredients: Bacon, lettuce, tomato, and toasted bread. When you chomp into a BLT with toasted bread, every bite can be really abrasive on your tongue, gums, and the inside of your cheeks because the texture of every ingredient you're gnawing into is too crispy. You may even get sharp food debris stuck in between your teeth. Your sandwich is also likely to break apart with every bite because all of that crispiness makes your ingredients more brittle, resulting in messy crumbs and even ingredients falling out of your sandwich as you eat.

When you make a BLT with thick, soft bread, every bite begins with a fluffy layer of bread that makes it easier to enjoy the crunchier ingredients to come. The charred taste of toasted bread can amplify the burnt flavor of your bacon in an unpleasant way (which may be why you need to avoid frying bacon for BLTs). However, untoasted bread gives your BLT a more flavorful balance because its mild flavor allows the smokiness of your bacon to shine through pleasantly. A thick, soft bread also keeps ingredients from falling out of your sandwich as you eat because it provides a substantial, yet delicate layer to nestle them, resulting in less messy crumbs. Those who have tried a BLT with untoasted bread have expressed on social media why it works.

In a Reddit thread titled, "Do you toast the bread in a BLT?," Redditors discussed eating a BLT with toasted or untoasted bread. One commenter confirmed that untoasted bread gives a BLT a satisfying, textural balance. They said, "I like it untoasted, with the soft bread being a nice contrast to the crunchy bacon and lettuce."

Another poster shared how untoasted bread can make your BLT less soggy and more flavorful, suggesting using "stout, untoasted bread that will absorb all the juice the tomato can deliver." If you don't want to eat a BLT with completely untoasted bread, another user suggested an alternative with a slight adjustment that will provide a comparable eating experience. They explained, "I typically toast lightly or use the bagel setting to only toast what ends up being the inside. The idea is to add the toast flavor without making it so hard it tears up the roof of your mouth." Eating a BLT with untoasted bread isn't the only way to make it refreshingly delicious. You can also give your BLT a new lease on life by turning it into a pasta salad. Either way, keep that sandwich bread soft and you'll see why it's superior.