A sandwich at The Brass Bear Delicatessen, a deli in Alamo, California.
out of 100 · very good
Very good, with one move worth +10.
A cubano with layers outside the form; six of six roles.
Holding the summit: a focused, restrained build
Each bar is one pillar of the score, 0 to 100. The tick marks what a sandwich at the summit needs; an amber bar is the one holding this sandwich back.
sour roll, served cold: turkey; roast beef; ham; salami; swiss; mustard; mayo; lettuce; tomato; pickle; onion.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.1 | 90th |
| acid | 1.2 | 78th |
| fat | 2.0 | 44th |
| sweet | 0.3 | 44th |
| umami | 2.1 | 78th |
| heat | 0.2 | 69th |
| bitter | 0.2 | 59th |
100 Balance, out of 100
The seven flavor axes of the whole sandwich, each summed across its layers. The shaded ring is the catalog's middle 80%; the small number under each axis is where this sandwich falls in the catalog. A shape that sits inside the ring is in the range most sandwiches live in; a spike past it is where this one stands apart.
What each layer brings
| Layer | Role | Flavor and texture | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| sour rollscored as Sourdough | bread | soft chewy crusty | the frame |
| turkey | protein | umami 2 soft juicy tender | −9 |
| roast beefscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | −9 |
| ham | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | −5 |
| salami | protein | salt 4 fat 4 umami 4 chewy silky | −5 |
| swissscored as Swiss Cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | −8 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | −7 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −10 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | −3 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | −3 |
| picklescored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | −10 |
| onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | −3 |
Points: what the Sandwich Score would lose if that one layer were left out, everything else the same. A negative number means the sandwich scores higher without it. Flavor runs 0 to 5 on each axis.
Pairings
- Turkey + Swiss Cheese: turkey and swiss, the deli default
- Turkey + Mayonnaise: turkey and mayo, the deli default
- Turkey + Tomato: lean bird and summer tomato, the deli standard
- Beef + Swiss Cheese: roast beef and swiss, the deli melt
- Beef + Mustard: roast beef and mustard, deli logic
- Beef + Pickle (cucumber): pickle brine against rich beef
- Beef + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Ham + Salami: salami and ham, the deli's double cure
- Ham + Swiss Cheese: cured pork and nutty swiss, an old alliance
- Ham + Mustard: deli constant: hot mustard on cured pork
- Ham + Pickle (cucumber): the cubano lesson: brine cuts cured pork
- Salami + Mustard: hot mustard against fatty salami
- Mayonnaise + Tomato: summer tomato sandwich: acid on rich
All the sandwiches at The Brass Bear Delicatessen · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder