A sandwich at The Brass Bear Delicatessen, a deli in Alamo, California.
out of 100 · very good
Very good, with one move worth +16.
Reads as a cubano, five of six roles, half the layers have no partner.
Holding the summit: a finished composition
More salt than 90% of the catalog.
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.
ciabatta, pressed: ham; salami; swiss; dijon mustard; mayo; pickle.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.8 | 90th |
| acid | 1.3 | 80th |
| fat | 2.7 | 71st |
| sweet | 0.4 | 47th |
| umami | 2.2 | 83rd |
| heat | 0.0 | n/a |
| bitter | 0.0 | n/a |
96 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ciabatta | bread | soft chewy crusty | the frame |
| ham | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | +15 |
| salami | protein | salt 4 fat 4 umami 4 chewy silky | +2 |
| swissscored as Swiss Cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | +11 |
| dijon mustard | not scored | ||
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −2 |
| picklescored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | +23 |
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
- Ham + Salami: salami and ham, the deli's double cure
- Ham + Swiss Cheese: cured pork and nutty swiss, an old alliance
- Ham + Pickle (cucumber): the cubano lesson: brine cuts cured pork
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: a finished composition (0.15 short).
All the sandwiches at The Brass Bear Delicatessen · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder