If you’ve had a tomato sandwich in the height of summer in the South, then you know—and if you don’t know, then the rumors are true: Nothing tastes better.
In its equilibrium, a good tomato sandwich is juicy and unctuous and appropriately messy, which is praise all-too-often reserved for hot sandwiches like cheesesteaks or patty melts. A perfect tomato sandwich can stop you in your tracks with just a few humble ingredients, no cooking required: mayonnaise, tomato, salt, and pepper.
“If you’re going to stray away from making a tomato sandwich with more than only those four ingredients, any additional ingredients better be of the utmost importance,” says Mason Hereford of Turkey & The Wolf in New Orleans. “I guess everything about a tomato sandwich is really freaking important.”…