A burger at Lumpy's Diner, a restaurant in Antioch, California.
out of 100 · very good
Very good, with one move worth +10.
A burger 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.
bun, toasted: beef patty; crispy bacon; swiss cheese; guacamole; mayo; mustard; lettuce; tomato; pickle; onion.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.8 | 81st |
| acid | 1.4 | 86th |
| fat | 2.3 | 56th |
| sweet | 0.4 | 49th |
| umami | 1.6 | 55th |
| heat | 0.3 | 72nd |
| bitter | 0.2 | 62nd |
99 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| bun (low tier)scored as Burger Bun | bread | sweet 2 soft springy | the frame |
| beef pattyscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | −7 |
| crispy baconscored as Bacon | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 crispy chewy | −7 |
| swiss cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | −8 |
| guacamole | sauce | fat 4 creamy fresh | −8 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −10 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | −8 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | −3 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | −1 |
| picklescored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | −10 |
| onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | −4 |
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
- 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
- Bacon + Lettuce: cool crunch against hot smoke
- Bacon + Tomato: smoke against sweet acid, the blt core
- Mayonnaise + Tomato: summer tomato sandwich: acid on rich
How to raise it
Commodity bread (burger bun): nothing on the board changes that, and 90 is closed.
- Between you and 90: a focused, restrained build (0.16 short).
All the sandwiches at Lumpy's Diner · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder