BS: Best sandwich?

Subject: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Arnie
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 06:25 AM

A recent study for the Baker's Federation has decided that the perfect sandwich is cheese and pickle on sliced white bread! That must be the most boring sandwich going so I don't know who voted for it - maybe the voting was rigged by Sunblest and the Cheesemakers Federation. My own particular favourite is salami on crusty white bread. Although the Earl of Sandwich invented the beast, I suspect that our UK sandwiches (or butties where I come from) are now lagging behind offerings from other parts of the globe - the choice in the States when I was last there is pretty staggering. Any particular favourites and are there still regional variations??

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,T-boy
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:33 AM

Sorry, white bread is a total no-no.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:37 AM

pizza sandwiches are lovely. One of those mini-pizzas between stodgy white bread & butter.
garlic-butter bacon & crisp sandwitches are also very nice.
chip butties?

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:51 AM

Yeh, I saw that too - and agree completely. Boring! (And, for N. Americans, pickle doesn't mean gherkin/garlic dill/ et al. It's a chutney kinda thing.)

Give me roast turkey complete with stuffing and cranberry sauce between two slabs of (sorry ...) 'white' bread.

OR EVEN BETTER - Montreal smoked meat!!!!!!!!!!!! (on light rye, of course.)

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,Sooz(at work)
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 08:01 AM

I've just eaten crunchy peanut butter and tomato on cheese and marmite bread (see Mudcat Cookbook) but the best of all is crunchy peanut butter and banana on wholemeal after it has been in a rucksack for five miles or so. Mind you, the location is also important. High, wild and lonely are good features.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 08:22 AM

Sian, what's Montreal smoked meat?

I stopped at the Putney Diner in Putney, Vermont and had what I think was called the Green Mountain Special, (I know the words "Green Mt." were in the name) - Meat loaf with cheddar cheese (Cabot's mild to be specific) and cranberry sauce on rye. It was excellent, and I'm looking forward to travelling to Vt. again for the same meal. I can make it at home, but the Putney Diner has a certain ambience that I can't reproduce in my kitchen, (there is not one right angle in the Putney Diner, it feels like it may collapse on you at any moment). the sandwich came with fries that were cut at the diner, not cut and frozen somewhere else, and tomato soup shredded mild cheddar and basil, also excellent. (You can do this one at home, too, a can of Campbell's, add the cheese just before serving, so it gets gooey, but doesn't melt entirely).

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 08:52 AM

Ummm.... dunno what Montreal Smoked meat is really. It's what my sister brings home for Christmas (from Montreal) and we eat on Christmas Eve. And it's what she takes me to a diner to eat when I'm in Montreal - and it has to be served by bossy Jewish waiters wearing white shirts, black bow ties and long white half-aprons, and you have to make like you really want chicken-on-white but you know they're gonna bully you into MSM which is part of the experience and it is very very good when followed by a deli cheesecake.   (OK - maybe not a whole one ...)

Maybe it's akin to corned beef? (but PROPER corned beef - not the tinned stuff) It's all moist and very pink and kinda spicy (not herb-y) and utterly lush. Oh, and you should have a kosher dill with it.

We really need Rick Fielding here ....

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: kendall
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 08:52 AM

Thin sliced Steak (steamed or grilled) and cheddar cheese wrapped in aluminum foil and baked until the cheese melts.
Also, the Italian sandwich: a long sub roll packed with ham, cheese, sliced tomatos, lettuce, onions and olives with a squirt of Olive oil.
But, my favorite is the Maine lobster roll. Take a hot dog roll, stuff it with chunks of tail and claw meat, then slather some mayonnaise or Miracle Whip on top.

Venison is also excellent. I even like a sandwich made of refried beans!

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 09:03 AM

thin sliced *rare* roast beef, with onion and horseradish on a good whole grain bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Allan C.
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 09:32 AM

I must agree with Sean about the turkey sandwiches. They are the best part of the Thanksgiving holiday. I also very much enjoy slices of avocado and cheddar cheese between two slices of mayonnaised Italian bread. However, I can be almost as happy with a PB&J - (that's peanut butter and jelly to the uninitiated) sandwich.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Peg
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 09:35 AM

hmm....

The Harrison Deli in Boston makes a great egg salad sandwich...fresh-made to order!

I like Genoa salami and sharp cheddar on chewy fresh bread (like francese or ciabatta) with a bit of grain mustard or real Mayonnaise...

Tuna melt made with cheddar and whole grain bread, with fresh greens added after toasting so they're cold while the rest of the sandwich is hot! (You have to grill the sandwich in two parts).

Thick bacon and cheddar with FRESH garden tomatoes on chewy bread...

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 09:50 AM

Sliced roast beef on pumpernickle with cream cheese and diced black olives.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:00 AM

sun-ripened tomato slices still warm from the garden with swiss cheese on whole wheat spread with real mayo.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: mooman
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:02 AM

I agree partially.

Cheese (must strictly be vintage cheddar) and pickle (must strictly be Branston) on wholegrain bread.

Ideally washed down with a pint of Adnams, Brakespears, Old Speckled Hen, Marstons Pedigree, London Pride, Greene King, Bombardier or other similar suitable beverage.

Oh b****r, I just remembered I live in Belgium where none of these things are available!

Peace

moo

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:04 AM

mooman - that would be a pint EACH?

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: mooman
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:08 AM

That is an even better idea MMario!

Peace

moo

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,Ron Olesko
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:14 AM

Turkey, bacon, lettuce & tomato with mayo on toasted white bread. Finest kind.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:19 AM

Banana, tahini, dates, cream cheese on thick barley bread, from a vegetarian shop near work, but I don't often get it as I take my own sandwich to work - lots of salady stuff & roast chicken, or deli meat on a lovely grainy-seed bread.

Worse sando ever was invented by a colleague, my then supervisor, (male, late 30's), & introduced by him to another colleague (male, early 30's) - sausage roll in a bread roll!! Pastry & sausage mince in a roll. yuk. All female staff members who heard or saw it were horrified.

This supervisor used to look at my substantial sando & tell me his pappy white bread sandos (about 6 of them with god-knows-what whimpy filling) were a better lunch & I should have them instead of mine. He meant well, but YUK.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:28 AM

Peanut butter (see below) and banana, on toasted whole-wheat bread.

The peanut butter must be REAL peanut butter (nothing but ground peanuts and salt), not that larded, sweetened stuff like Skippy. The bananas really should be JUST over being green.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:32 AM

moo, are you 'in' on Secret Santa this year? If so, and I get you, you've solved my shopping problems!

(Owl still has pride of place. Much commented upon.)

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:34 AM

a blt with avacado and sauteed mushrooms and both pieces of bread fried in the bacon grease.

peanut butter and onion

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Amos
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 11:03 AM

Real peanut butter as described above on seven-grain toast, with thick slices of freshly cooked and thoroughly drained crisp bacon. To drink, a coffee milkshake.

Well, it worked when I was seventeen... LOL!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,Ron Olesko
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 11:13 AM

I'm a big fan of Skippy. I know it is processed and not really healthy, but it is a comfort food from my youth!

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 11:26 AM

I guess one has to have lived in Iowa to understand how good a tenderloin sandwich can be. Outside of Iowa, no one's even heard of tenderloins. Tenderloins were always a speciality at A&W drive-ins—and lots of other places—but the first time I stopped at an A&W outside of Iowa and asked for a tenderloin, all I got was dumb looks. I've since come to learn that this delectible delight is virtually unknown outside Iowa.

A tenderloin is a thin, breaded pork fritter, usually 6 to 8 inches across, deep fried a golden brown. It goes on an oversized sesame seed bun but still sticks out an inch or two around the edges. Optional garnishes include dill pickle slices, onion slices, Romain lettuce and a tomato slice. This is the only sandwich that requires both ketchup and mustard. Normally ketchup is for hamburgers and mustard is for red hots (hot dogs) and never the twain shall meet.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 01:40 PM

Vegemite & Honey (together)

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: M.Ted
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 02:00 PM

Ron's turkey club sounds good--and Mark has given us a good reason to visit Iowa--The Montreal smoked meat sounds like Pastrami--But this thread tells me more than I want to know about some of you!--

As for me, I once tended toward a Rueben with russian dressing--years in Philly made me fond of a good Cheese Steak with grilled onions a few pickled peppers(from Geno's) or a good a South Philly roast pork sandwich--Can't get those outside of Philly though--here in MD, 've found a place that fixes a great North Carolina style pulled pork sandwich, on a spongy white bread bun that I wouldn't touch in any other situation--

but these hot sandwiches are also a bit on the heavy side--lately, I've been partial to a good baguette, brushed with olive oil, and with a few thin slices of Rosemary Ham and a bit of on or another Swiss cheese-

For above mentioned white bread, cheese, and pickle, what sort of cheese would be it be?

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 02:04 PM

I had to go look it up ---

Montreal Smoked meat is a seasoned and smoked brisket - so yes; it is essentially a pastrami

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Sooz
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 02:15 PM

Uncle DaveO - the bananas should be RIPE!

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Amos
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 02:38 PM

A true Philadelphia steak sandwich -- fried strips of steak and onions scrambled up and laid hot on a long sub bun. Can't be beat with cold Mountain Dew! LOL!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Mudlark
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 02:40 PM

Oh man, what a thread to drool over. I've been on a breadless diet since the first of the year (my French grandmother would turn over in her grave to hear I've given up homemade bread/croissants/biscuits!) and sandwiches are sorely missed. My favorite is really good pastrami, thin sliced and piled thick, a couple of very thin slices of a good swiss cheese, and finely shredded homemade coleslaw, with spicy mustard on Jewish rye...big dill on the side, and a Negra Modelo or good dark German beer to wash it down. Dream on....

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 02:43 PM

mudlark - I just build the sandwiches without the bread - granted - most have to be eaten with a fork - but some can be rolled up and eaten out of hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 03:00 PM

Some of these sound very interesting, and one I eat on occasion when I find it on the menu is called "French Dip," warm sliced roast beef on a crusty roll, dipped into au jus. But my favorite, and one I come back to again and again with great pleasure, is a good old fashioned peanut butter and jam sandwich.

The office I work in went into a rhapsody of peanut butter sandwich longings when they spotted mine earlier this week. Big slices of nice soft whole wheat bread, real peanut butter (as has been said, just nuts and salt), and a good dollop of strawberry preserves. It helps if it has been at least a couple of hours since you made it, so the flavors can mingle, and hasn't been chilled very much (my lunch bag has a freezer pack, but that keeps it cool, not cold).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,Ron Olesko
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 03:09 PM

Another sandwich that I haven't had in years - fried bologna on white bread. I know, it probably sounds horrible to you too. My mother came from a coal mining family in Pennsylvania and she told me that this was a staple for her father and brothers. It was simply bologna fried in ketchup and served on white bread. Simple, basic, cheap, and sustaining. My mother used to make them for me when I was a kid and I loved it! Even though it was meant to be served hot, she said that her mother would make them to pack in the lunches of her dad and brothers lunches.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Don Firth
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 03:23 PM

Years ago my father used to go down to the Seattle waterfront and buy a couple of tuna fresh off the boat. Big damned fish! Then all that weekend, people going by our house would hold their noses and run, because my mother and father were busy cutting up the tuna, packing it into pint Mason jars, and doing the pressure cooker thing. We would also have a few tuna steaks.

Then, any time during the coming year, my mother would take a pint jar of tuna out of the storage cupboard in a cool corner of our basement, mince it up, add a little mayo, minced celery and sweet pickle, and voila! Tuna salad! We'd pack tuna salad about three-quarters of an inch thick between a couple slices of bread.

This was not like the tuna (consistency of moist sawdust) that you get out of the little cans you buy in the grocery store. This was. . .   This was. . . .

I'm overcome by emotion. And hunger. I just realized it's lunchtime here. And (sigh) no tuna. I'll have to rummage around in the fridge and see what I can find.

I grew up on tuna salad sandwiches.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 04:24 PM

Egg mayonnaise - has to be Helmanns mayonnaise, with a little Iceberg lettuce, no nancy garnish of tomatoes or other gunk, and white or half and half bread.

Or mushrooms fried in butter and then poured over sliced white bread. Has to be eaten hot.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 04:44 PM

Don, I've got a tuna steak in the freezer. I also have mushrooms and butter...and cheddar cheese. Sounds like a good combination. I may not actually need the bread.

When I was in England, I used to buy grilled cheddar & tomato sandwiches at a pub. Tried making them myself, but the hot cheese just slides off the tomato (or vice versa). Tastes good though. (Of course, people in England tended to use utensils. There is NO sport in that!

Another one from those days is grilled cheese and onion. You butter bread and slap it on the grill, then put cheese on one half to melt. Slice some onion and grill it until it's soft, then stick it on the cheese side, put the second hunk of bread on top and voila!

Good old fashioned BLTs (Bacon, lettuce and tomato). My mom used to toast some bread, slice up home grown RIPE tomatos, fry bacon and rip off some lettuce leaves. She'd put them on plates on the table, along with a jar of mayonnaise and a knife and we'd just make 'em and eat 'em. We also wound up soaked in mayonnaise & tomato juice, but what the heck.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 04:56 PM

Then, there's always the muffaletta. Muffalettas are so good that, even though they weren't invented in New Orleans and there is absolutely nothing Cajun about them, they have achieved the status of "honorary Cajun food". That is not something Cajuns do lightly. Here's a recipe.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 05:07 PM

Smoked Salmon and Asparagus.

I hardly need mention the 'color' of the bread

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 05:14 PM

Some things mentioned sound absolutely dreadful.

In Chicago, there are two types of sandwiches that are absolutely famous and identified as the finest of regional cuisine.

One is the Chicago style hot dog. Not your mushy and flavorless goyisha dog, but a true legendary formula of a kosher style hot dog on a steamed, poppyseed bun with mustard, sweet pickle relish, chopped onions, kosher pickle, tomato. Sport peppers are optional. Requesting ketchup on it will either be scorned, laughed at, or outright denied.

Another Chicago favorite is the Italian beef sandwich. This is an extreme regional favorite of very thinly sliced hot roast beef simmered in Italian spiced juices and served moderately to very juicy on Italian bread. Sweet or hot peppers are optional.

Both of these sandwiches are legendary, world famous Chicago cuisine and are craved by many people when they move away as they cannot find anything so wonderful elsewhere on the planet.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 05:18 PM

There is no sandwich in the world that is not improved by the addition of diced (or sliced) red onion.

It has been scientifically proven.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: radriano
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 05:58 PM

How about sardine & mustard sandwiches? For me, the best part of a sandwich is the bread/roll. I'm not partial to white bread. I grew up in a Polish neighborhood in Chicago and I remember, as a kid, going to the local bakery at 5:30 AM to pick up fresh (and still piping hot) loaves of rye bread. The crunchy crust was the best part. Bread should never be packaged in plastic - it should be bought fresh and eaten the same day. My first wife drove me nuts when she would buy several loaves of bread at the supermart and then put them in the freezer.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Allan C.
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 06:00 PM

Guest Ed, kindly keep your distance from my PB&J's!

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Emma B
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:04 PM

For pure nostalga - the 'conny-onny butties' of childhood! For the uninitiated this is slightly sugared condensed milk spread thickly and gooingly on bread.
However since both my tastebuds and myself have matured my favourite is the Catalan classic Pa amb Tomaquet (preferably with an 'Old Vine' Carignan wine
Lightly toast bread,while warm vigoursly rub with garlic, ooze the juice, seeds and pulp of half a ripe tomato into the bread - leaving the skin. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with serrano ham, roasted peppers, anchovies or whatever else takes your fancy!

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:24 PM

I guess I forgot to mention that I don't think I had store-bought bread until I was about 13. My mom made it and sold it in a local grocery store for a long time. Round loaves with ridges for where to slice, made in a 2-sided, clamped shut bread 'mold'. People would visit while the ovens were going and go into a sort of a rapture over the smell, which I hardly noticed.

Allan: red onion jelly. Might be good!

Emma, your squished tomato sandwich sounds wonderful!

I grew up with plain sandwiches. Tuna salad, PB&J, Fluffernutters (PB & Marshmallow Fluff), liverwurst & mustard, deviled ham, cream cheese and olive. I'm really glad my mom never got the liverwurst and PB mixed up when she made my school lunches. A flufferwurst would have been REALLY weird.

Wraps are the new thing. I don't mind lots of stuff in a sandwich, as long as someone else makes them. The Press Room makes a chicken pesto wrap that's quite good.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:30 PM

Peanut Butter and Almond Butter, mixed..(both crunchy) on a whole-grain bread (no preservatives) with dark honey, preferably Tasmainian Leatherwood, but Manuka from N. Zealand will do, or even desert Mesquite honey from the US. If the bread is fresh baked and still warm, it is food for the Gods.

Then we can discuss cold meat, cheese etc..sandwiches vs. hot sandwiches --totally different categories! I can build a VERY nice cold one from Italian cold cuts and hot peppers and good Mayo and/or oil-vinegar with lettuce...but, sorry, NO onions on mine. I know, I know...I even understand! I just do not care for biting into onion as a recognizable ingredient of anything.

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Gray D
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:52 PM

Got very partial to the cheese with spicy fried aubergine sandwiches in Rome this year . . . mmmmmm . . . mouth's watering . . .

Gray D

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 07:57 PM

oh...and I HAVE eaten fried bologna with ketchup (spam, too)...but not for about 50 years.

fried bologna needs to have it's edges cut to avoid curling up in the pan

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: M.Ted
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 09:34 PM

I've had an italian sandwich made with smoked aubergines that taste almost as if they were grilled meat--with a nice goat cheese--

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Ely
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 10:03 PM

My childhood favorite was peanut butter (crunchy) and dill pickles on wheat.

I also like sharp cheddar and tomato on rye, toasted. Not exciting but absolutely the thing, with a bowl of tomato soup, for a cold day.

I like Reubens but made with brown mustard istead of Thousand Island.

My mother, who is from New Jersey, grew up on cream-cheese and grape jelly.

My dad once packed himself a peanut butter and liverwurst, but forgot to take it to work so my mother gave it to me for lunch (I don't recommend this combination, however).

Subject: RE: BS: Best sandwich?
From: Padre
Date: 02 Oct 03 - 11:23 PM

Potato salad between two slices of Sunbeam bread - a carb loader's dream!!