Balance of Food

Prime time for a LT sandwich; bacon can wait

A BLT — bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich — is a wonderful late-summer treat. This is also the sweet spot for the LT sandwich.

"Bacon makes everything better." True. This doesn't mean you have to put bacon on everything every time.

Is a LT sandwich — lettuce and tomato sandwich — just a BLT without bacon?

What's Tempting: True price of cheap bacon

Bacon goes well on everything, even a veggie burger

Lightly toasted bread, mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, lettuce, and tomatoes belong on a LT and a BLT. Bacon is missing in a LT. The LT is missing something that bacon won't cure. Let's take a look at a few good options:

• Salt — Salt enhances the taste of foods. When added at the end, you might taste salt more than tomatoes, the central ingredient in a LT.
• Pepper — Pepper really makes an impact in an otherwise bland sandwich. This should be on top of the mayo-covered toast.
• Smoked paprika — This can add the semblance of smoky flavor from bacon without the bacon.
• Baconnaise — Jon Stewart just did a spit take. Baconnaise doesn't have bacon. Still shouldn't have Baconnaise.

A LT sandwich bumps up the tomato to be the star. Lettuce is the Ed McMahon or Andy Richter of the sandwich. Mayo and the toast can be a Doc Severinsen or Reggie Watts.

The tomato can be like the guest host back when Johnny Carson had guest hosts. You could get a Garry Shandling or David Letterman (great tomatoes) or a John Davidson (tomatoes that taste like they traveled a great distance). Modern talk show hosts don't have guest hosts too often.

A LT only works with quality tomatoes. An average bacon can be okay in a BLT; an average tomato ruins a LT.

Appreciating the elusive great tomato

Can baconnaise be part of the balance?

Temptation of the Week: Part-time vegan

BalanceofFood.com farmers market coverage

I've had bad BLTs in restaurants. Barely cooked bacon, sad tomatoes, and borderline iceberg lettuce. We talk about foods that are better done in restaurants. A LT sandwich needs local lettuce and tomato, a nice mayo type substance, and good bread. Doing a LT at home is a great sandwich. Not better than a BLT, but the LT as its own unique summer delicacy.

photos credit: me

Beyond Burger has a lot of ingredients but doesn't qualify as ultra-processed

There is finally products that mimic meat for non-meat eaters. People seem to like the products. The current complaint is these products are ultra-processed?

Meat is minimally processed with no other ingredients. Beyond Burger, Impossible Burger, and all other veggie burgers have multiple ingredients.

The only way to get a single ingredient product that does what these alternative burgers do is cloned meat. I can't wait for cloned meat. That won't happen soon.

Most people who eat the newest in these burgers have had multiple veggie burgers. Omnivores, such as your humble narrator, have had a few veggie burgers. They generally aren't that great; taste being subjective, sales of veggie burgers prove otherwise.

Changing definition of processed food doesn't change the concern

Review: The Beyond Burger

I enjoy the term "ultra-processed food" as a distinction because of pressure from some dietitians to label almost everything "processed food."

Does the Beyond Burger and other such burgers qualify as "ultra-processed"?

Water, Pea Protein Isolate, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Refined Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Natural Flavors, Cocoa Butter, Mung Bean Protein, Methylcellulose, Potato Starch, Apple Extract, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Sunflower Lecithin, Pomegranate Fruit Powder, Beet Juice Extract (for color)

There are 18 ingredients. A lot of ingredients. A good chili can have 18 ingredients. Ultra-processed?

No color dyes: pomegranate fruit powder and beet juice extract add to the red color. Methylcellulose might be the "scariest" ingredient; it's a laxative. Having salt and potassium chloride means a product will taste pretty salty. An ingredient list where you recognize most of the ingredients. Every threshold is unique but this would qualify as processed food, not ultra-processed.

Even if you think the Beyond Burger is ultra-processed food, eating a few Beyond Burgers at summer picnics will not bring harm. If you eat 30 Beyond Burgers a year.

Finding great burgers means eating some lesser burgers

When you meet real bravado and a damn fine burger

How to protect yourself since USDA declares 'pink slime' as 'ground beef'

Meat eaters shouldn't be on their high horse (cow?) on alternative burgers. They serve a purpose from nutrition to the environment to animal welfare.

Cloned meat is coming. If cloned meat tastes remotely close to the real thing, depending on cost, even more people will choose alternatives to traditional burgers.

This would go better if we ate better-raised animals. They have more nutrition and taste so much better. Pork from pigs in Italy who live a better life than most of us: their taste is such a delicacy.

Vegetarians and vegans will still have issues and concerns with eating animals. We should fight for higher standards since we are the ones eating the animals, and because they deserve our concern.

I've tried the Impossible Burger. Not so bad but my patty tasted overcooked. Beyond Beef tasted like slightly overcooked beef. My standards lean toward medium-rare. Those who enjoy overcooked beef (looking at you, Canada) will do fine with either of these products.

I'm not a meatloaf fan but I gather you wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a meatloaf.

When determining the impact of one individual food item, look at your overall diet. Are you generally eating well? Are you struggling with getting vegetables in your diet.

Doing fairly well and eating an occasional veggie burger, no matter how many ingredients, is a good way to go.

The better quality of ingredients, the better the food will be even if there are a lot of ingredients. Quantity can be a concern but quality helps.

Ultra-processed food is an effective identifier. Like most food terms, someone sometimes will abuse a food term.

photo credit: Beyond Burger