Your Last Meal | Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam talks tomato sandwiches
The dish can be religious for Southerners, who have strict rules about what should (Duke’s mayo) and shouldn’t (bacon) be on one.
Iron & Wine sounds like a band, but in fact there is just one man behind the music: a soft-spoken North Carolina singer/songwriter named Sam Beam, who unintentionally stumbled into a music career later in life.
A true Southern boy, Sam wants a stack of tomato sandwiches for his last meal. Just ripe summer heirlooms, squishy white bread and mayonnaise. A simple summer snack so sacred in North Carolina, locals get riled up at the mere mention of adding bacon or lettuce.
We called upon a couple North Carolina culinary queens to talk about the dos and don’ts of the tomato sandwich: veteran food journalist Kathleen Purvis and chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Vivian Howard. And sticking with the Southern theme, food historian Robert Moss joins the show to tell the true history of the boiled peanut.
Lucky for us, tomatoes are still hanging heavy on the vines, because you’ll be hankering for a tomato sandwich by the end of this episode.
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If you’ve ever had a tomato sandwich, then you know this is the best time of year! In honor of tomato season (!) (and host Rachel Belle being on vacation) we are re-airing this episode from 2019.
