Background: so, I went into a local bar on Saturday and ordered a tuna club sandwich.
No bacon. I said to the bartender, “uh, there’s no bacon on my club sandwich”. She takes the plate to the back, comes back and says, “there’s no bacon on that sandwich. It doesn’t say it on the menu.”
Not 100% sure of myself, what I DIDN’T say was : it’s a club sandwich. Bacon is implied.
What I did say was: I’ve ordered that sandwich here a lot. It always has bacon on it. (which is entirely true)
Now, as far as I’m concerned, the canonical “Club Sandwich” is double decker with turkey, bacon, LTM.
But, you can also get a “roast beef club”, “tuna club”, etc. where the RB or tuna is substitued for the turkey. The bacon stays.
A club sandwich is a sandwich with three pieces of bread instead of two. Bacon is not required.
A turkey club certainly must have bacon on it, because that is delicious. A tuna club generally has tuna salad and sliced hardboiled egg and tomatoes. Putting bacon on that would be pretty gross.
I really enjoy me some club sandwiches, I have one at least once a week. You better believe that it should have bacon on it, and even better if it’s a ham and turkey club with bacon. That’s club sandwich perfection right there.
That being said, I’m still not entirely sure how to eat one without making a mess. I wish I would just order them made like normal sandwiches, but I never do.
I got another one for you: What makes a chef’s salad?
To me, a chef’s salad is lettuce, various vegetables, at least 2 kinds of deli meat (usually ham and turkey), and cheese. The thing that makes it a chef’s salad is the meat. A salad without meat is not a chef’s salad.
I got into this argument about 3 months ago with a local coffeeshop. I ordered a chef’s salad and what they gave me was a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, a couple other veggies, and maybe some cheese.
As far as I can tell, the only required ingredients for a club sandwich are turkey and bacon. They’re the only two common factors in every club sandwich I’ve ever had.
“I like my sandwhiches with three pieces of bread.
‘Well so do I, let’s form a club then.’
Ok, but we need more stipulations.
‘Yes we do.’
Instead of cutting a sandwhich once, let’s cut it again.
'Yes, four triangles.”
And we will postion them into a circle. And in the middle we will dump chips.
‘Or potato salad.’
Ok… Let me ask you a question, how do you feel about frilly toothpicks?
‘I’m for them!’
Well this club is formed, spread the word across menus nationwide.
‘I like mine with alfala sprouts.’
You’re not in the fuckin club."
Recipes are weird. At some point, the first “club sandwich” was made. More than likely, the exact recipe is lost. Wikipedia has a guess at the origin, but nothing is definite.
But nonetheless the recipe was made.
Now, here’s where it gets tricky: If it isn’t made the way the original recipe deals with, it’s not the same thing.
Chef’s hate this idea, but it’s true. A friend talked about her mom’s great shepherd’s pie recipe, and then talked about how the ground beef was prepared. I said “if it’s not lamb or mutton, it’s not shepherd’s pie.” She got angry.
So here’s the Club Sandwich rule: if someone can definitively prove that bacon was in the original recipe, great. Otherwise, everything’s just personal preference anyway.
