Club Sandwich

Method

1. prep4 min
   room temperature
   tomato sliced and laid on paper towel + salt over the slices, and let them sit while the bacon cooks — salted tomato weeps within two minutes, and it is better that it weeps here than inside the sandwich
2. fry10 min
   cold pan, then medium-low
   bacon laid flat in an unheated pan, turned once — starting cold renders the fat out slowly so the strips stay flat and go brittle; a hot pan seizes the muscle first and you get bacon that curls and stays chewy. Drain on paper.
3. toast4 min
   medium-dark, both faces
   bread slices, all six, toasted until firm right through and dry to the touch — the middle slice carries wet filling on both faces and untoasted crumb turns to paste under it, which is how a club collapses on the plate
4. mix1 min
   mayonnaise + black pepper, and butter the middle slice thinly on both faces before any mayonnaise goes on — the butter sets as a waterproof film that mayonnaise alone cannot manage
5. top3 min
   slice 1, mayonnaise up + turkey + lettuce → slice 2, mayonnaise both faces + bacon + drained tomato + lettuce → slice 3, mayonnaise down. Lettuce sits against the tomato deliberately: it is the barrier between the juice and the bread.
6. rest1 min
   under light pressure
   assembled sandwich pressed gently with a flat palm and skewered with four picks, one through each quadrant — the picks go in before the knife, or the top slice slides off mid-cut
7. slice1 min
   long serrated knife, sawing not pressing
   cut corner to corner into four triangles, each pick centered in its own wedge; pressing down instead of sawing squeezes the fillings out the sides