When Making Sandwiches For A Picnic, Don't Toast Your Bread

When it comes to picnic food, it's hard to beat the sandwich — after all, there isn't really a more portable or easy-to-eat meal than the sandwich. But unfortunately, sandwiches can be a little finicky and, if you don't prepare them just right, then you may end up with an unsatisfying meal. One of the biggest mistakes you might make? Toasting the bread.

Toasting the bread for sandwiches is great if you're eating it at home when the bread is fresh out of the toaster, but if you toast the bread and prepare the sandwich in advance — such as for a picnic — then you may find that the bread has become hard and dried out by the time you take your first bite at the picnic. Plenty of sandwiches will taste just as delicious when using fresh bread instead of toasted, even if the recipes instruct to do so — such as Tasting Table's green goddess sandwich or sweet heat BLT — thanks to the tasty ingredients inside. Both of those sandwiches contain crunchy ingredients that will make up for the lack of crunch from toasted bread. However, when using fresh bread, there is one detail you have to consider that just so happens to be the opposite problem of hard, dried out bread: a soggy sandwich.

Just like you don't want a hard, overly dry sandwich, you also don't want a soggy mess of a sandwich. As much as we love tomato, cucumber, olives, or pickles, ingredients such as those contain moisture that gets soaked up by the fresh bread when the sandwich isn't eaten right away — such as when it's packed away for a picnic. Luckily, there are a few ways to prevent this.

For example, thanks to TikTok, we learned a clever trick to prevent soggy sandwiches: Wrap the sandwich in a paper towel then place it in an airtight container. The paper towel will soak up any of the moisture from the ingredients as well as act as a barrier between the sandwich and any condensation from the cooler that you keep the sandwiches in for the picnic. If you don't have paper towels, parchment or wax paper are two other wrapping materials that help prevent sogginess.

Finally, even though it may seem counterintuitive, certain condiments can actually help prevent your sandwich from getting soggy, which is why you should be adding mayo to both bread slices. Mayo — along with some other condiments, such as butter, cream cheese, and pesto — repels water, which means that the moisture won't get past the mayo to the bread, thus keeping all sogginess away.