A sandwich at The Sandwich Spot Menlo College, a sandwich shop in Atherton, California.
out of 100 · very good
Very good, with one move worth +22.
A reuben with layers outside the form; six of six roles.
Holding the summit: a focused, restrained build
−6 sauce overload
More acid 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.
choice of bread, toasted: pastrami; sauerkraut; 1000 island dressing; swiss; mayo; mustard; secret sauce; lettuce; tomato; pickles; onions; peppers.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.0 | 88th |
| acid | 2.1 | 90th |
| fat | 1.7 | 32nd |
| sweet | 0.5 | 64th |
| umami | 1.3 | 41st |
| heat | 0.6 | 89th |
| bitter | 0.2 | 66th |
97 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| choice of bread | bread | soft | the frame |
| pastrami | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | −5 |
| sauerkraut | acid | acid 4 salt 2 pickled wet | −6 |
| 1000 island dressingscored as Russian Dressing (Thousand Island) | sauce | fat 4 salt 2 acid 2 sweet 2 creamy saucy | −18 |
| swissscored as Swiss Cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | −6 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −22 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | −14 |
| secret sauce | not scored | ||
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | −4 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | −4 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | −12 |
| onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | −4 |
| peppersscored as Pepper (bell/hot) | texture | heat 3 crunchy juicy | −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
- Pastrami + Sauerkraut: peppery beef, sour kraut: the reuben axis
- Pastrami + Swiss Cheese: melted swiss rounds peppered beef
- Pastrami + Mustard: deli law: sharp mustard against cured beef
- Sauerkraut + Russian Dressing (Thousand Island): russian dressing was built for kraut
- Sauerkraut + Swiss Cheese: melted swiss rounds the kraut's sour
- Mayonnaise + Tomato: summer tomato sandwich: acid on rich
- Onion + Pepper (bell/hot): peppers and onions, the griddle pair
How to raise it
- Clear the board: sauce overload (-6).
All the sandwiches at The Sandwich Spot Menlo College · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder