One of my favorites: a thick slice of homemade meatloaf on Brioche with thick, chewy bacon and sweet Bbq sauce, with homemade sweet potato fries with Ranch dressing for dipping (ketchup has become too one-dimensional for me) and half a tomato on the side (tomato goodness absent the ketchup).
Another, which I don't make, but a chef friend makes for me: chicken cutlets wrapped in Genoa salami on Brioche with bacon, melted Provolone and homemade red sauce with grilled white onions,
When thinking of sandwiches, we also need to think about their architecture and engineering. Piling stuff atop a lot of other stuff results in a trip to the dry cleaners. The idea of a 20-story Dagwood sounds droolsome, until the thing collapses in your lap. This is why I've started setting limits on how much stuff I want stuffed into my sandwich. Seasonings--salt, pepper, scallions (not so much a seasoning as such, but very small), cornichons etc.--pile 'em on; but the more substantial components--the meats, the cheeses, the vegetables--take a look at into what they are going. Is it two (or more) slices of bread? A bulkie roll? A sub roll? A wrap? An open-faced sammich? Open-faced, you can get away with almost anything, because it stays planted on a plate and you are stuck with a knife and fork, and is a "sandwich" only by the grace of God, or, better put, by some student of Joseph Goebbels. The rest? First, have you noticed that restaurants that know what they are doing put the subordinate stuff (condiments, add-ons like crispy onions and fried eggs) at the bottom of the sandwich (especially if it's a sub) so they don't slide off the top? I hate it when an egg falls into my crotch! Think about the soggy quotient of the ingredients you envision for your masterpiece, and when you will actually be eating it. Mayonnaise is going to make your superstructure limp and soggy sooner than hummus, regardless of the shell it's in. A wrap may look like the best form factor for a recipe with an ambitious amount of ingredients, but, when a wrap (white wrap, whole wheat wrap, cornmeal wrap) starts to GO, it fails completely and all at once. No amount of Krazy Glu is gonna keep that mofo intact.
The point of this is: when we design our sandwiches, look at what is going to be the casing for the sandwich/wrap; put in the ingredients that matter most first, step back and look at the totality of the project you envision, ask yourself, "Would I look like an asshole, trying to eat this in front of the person I love most in this life?" If the answer is yes, start scaling your design back.
Less is more. A great sandwich does not collapse.
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godewey (16472)
7 years ago
Good call on the meatloaf sandwich.
Tonight I had a leftover roast beef sandwich on Russian rye. With a slice of Cupola cheese and caramelized onions.
I'm the same with ketchup. I make my own condiment.
Ketchup, mayo, mustard, Tabasco Chipotle, salt, garlic powder and onion powder.
Great on burgers and some sandwiches. You can mix and match according to your taste.
Couldn't agree more on the structure of sandwiches.
With a sandwich more is not always better. The first and last bite should both be fully intact.
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