I can resist just about anything but a .........

bacon sandwich.

Popped downstairs to make my lunch today. Had some left over tomato sauce that I was going to stir through some cooked grains and serve with crumbled feta cheese. Reasonably healthy and not short on taste either.

However, as I entered the kitchen, I was overpowered by the smell of the bacon that my daughter had recently consumed sandwiched between 2 slices of white buttered bread - the good old bacon butty.

Naturally all thoughts of my healthy lunch were dismissed - I just had to have a bacon sandwich. What is it about the bacon sandwich that is so hard to resists? I have known vegetarians who have admitted that the one thing that makes them take a wobble is a bacon sandwich. Rosina summed it up when she said there is nothing guaranteed to get a student out of bed like a bacon sandwich can.

So, in the interests of science, I googled it and shouldn't have been surprised to find that it has been the subject of some scientific research (yes there are people out there sadder than me). Here it is:

Scientists have created a mathematical formula of how to make the perfect bacon butty.
Experts at Leeds University discovered the secret to the ideal sandwich lay in how crispy and crunchy rashers were.

They found that two or three back bacon rashers should be cooked under a preheated oven grill for seven minutes at about 240C (475F).

The bacon should then be placed between two slices of farmhouse bread, 1cm to 2cm thick.

Cooking times
Four researchers at the Department of Food Science spent more than 1,000 hours testing 700 variations on the traditional bacon sandwich.

They tried different types and cuts of bacon, cooking techniques, types of oil and a range of cooking times at different temperatures.

A shortlist was then tested with computers to measure the texture of each sandwich.

Fifty volunteers also judged each sandwich according to its taste, texture and flavour.

'Turn-off'
Dr Graham Clayton, who led the research, said: "We often think it's the taste and smell of bacon that consumers find most attractive.

"But our research proves that texture and the crunching sound is just - if not more - important.

"While there was much debate within our taste panels on the smoked or unsmoked decision, everyone agreed that tough or chewy bacon is a turn-off."

The formula is: N = C + {fb (cm) . fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc . ta, where N=force in Newtons required to break the cooked bacon, fb=function of the bacon type, fc=function of the condiment/filling effect, Ts=serving temperature, tc=cooking time, ta=time or duration of application of condiment/filling, cm=cooking method, C=Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.

Don't know about any of that, but whatever it is, it grabs you and pulls you in.

Sorry about the use of a photo of my computer screen, but there was no way I was going to let my bacon sandwich go cold whilst I took artistic photos of it