Sandwich Rollmops
Unpin the skewer and a rollmops springs loose: a herring fillet soured in vinegar, wound around onion and gherkin. The bread's only job is to give all that acid somewhere soft to land.
Andrew Lekashman
Sandwich Rocamadour-Miel
One thread of honey turns a plain goat round into its own sandwich. Run it light over a young Rocamadour, dark over a firmer one, and the sweet and the lactic tang hold each other up.
Sandwich Rillons
Rillons are large cubes of pork belly confit in their own fat, crisp-edged and whole rather than spread, the Touraine answer to a climate too damp for dry-curing.
Sandwich Rillettes du Mans
The Sandwich Rillettes du Mans spreads fork-shredded pork, packed pale and loose in its own fat, thick onto a baguette, a cornichon to cut the richness. The coarse Sarthe benchmark.
Sandwich Rillettes du Mans
Le Mans rillettes (whiter, creamier) on bread.
Sandwich Rillettes d'Oie
The Southwest's goose-rillettes spread on a crusted baguette: long-shredded leg meat sealed in its own fat, opened cool in October from a Gers cellar terrine.
Sandwich Rillettes de Tours
Tours-style rillettes -- cooked uncovered until the pork fibers caramelize and the paste turns golden-brown -- spread thick on a baguette with cornichons and a glass of Vouvray.
Sandwich Rillettes de Tours
Tours rillettes (darker, textured) on baguette.
Sandwich Rillettes de Thon
A no-cook tuna spread from a tin and a tub of crème fraîche, mashed with lemon and shallot for the apéritif hour. The most domestic of the French fish rillettes.
Sandwich Rillettes de Saumon
A salmon rillettes runs the same fish in two states: fresh-poached for the tender flake, cold-smoked for the salt and woodsmoke. Bound with butter, served at room temperature so the spread loosens.
Sandwich Rillettes de Porc
Pork shoulder and belly cooked down in their own fat to a coarse spread, packed thick into a baguette, cut with a cornichon. The default rillettes, served at room temperature where the fat carries.
Sandwich Rillettes de Maquereau
Mackerel flaked into a soft spread bound by creme fraiche and lemon rather than its own fat, layered thick on a crusted loaf and eaten cold. Lighter and sharper than any potted pork.
Sandwich Rillettes de Canard
Duck leg slow-cooked in its own fat and shredded to a dark, gamy spread, packed into a crusted baguette. The richer, deeper cousin of pork rillettes, off Gascony's confit shelf.
Sandwich Rillauds d'Anjou
Anjou pork belly cooked in its own fat to a burnished cube, packed warm down a baguette with strong Dijon, eaten on a Saturday market morning with a glass of Saumur-Champigny.
Sandwich Rigotte de Condrieu
The Sandwich Rigotte de Condrieu frames a tiny raw goat cheese from the Pilat slopes above Lyon, its rind freckling blue-grey as it dries, kept spare so the small round is not lost.
Sandwich Ratatouille
Cold ratatouille, drained of its loosest juice, packed into a split baguette: a vegetable sandwich whose whole craft is the fight between a stew that wants to run and a loaf that cannot soak.
Sandwich Raclette Baguette
A semi-firm Savoyard cheese melted and scraped into a split baguette, where the crust tube concentrates the molten cheese instead of letting it spread and set. Eaten warm and elastic.
Sandwich Quiche Lorraine
The Sandwich Quiche Lorraine puts a whole cold wedge of quiche, pastry floor and set custard, into a crusted loaf. It works on one trick: bake the migaine firm enough to slice and keep it cold.
Sandwich Provençal
A crusted baguette dressed cold with drained ripe tomato, oil-cured olive, anchovy, raw onion, and a film of mill-fresh olive oil rubbed with herbes de Provence onto the crumb.
Sandwich Prisuttu
The Corsican village ham sandwich: eight-kilo legs hung for up to two years in mountain attics, sliced thin onto a wide country loaf.
Sandwich Préfou
Préfou is a Vendée loaf baked deliberately half done, its name meaning pre-oven: garlic butter goes into the underbaked bread before a second bake finishes it, reversing the usual spread-after order.
Sandwich Poulet
The everyday French boulangerie chicken baguette: a half-loaf, a thin band of mayonnaise, three or four slices of cooked breast, and a leaf of green lettuce.
Sandwich Poulet Rôti
The roast chicken sandwich, skin and all: a whole rotisserie bird carved into a baguette, dark meat and crisp seasoned skin and rendered jus, the Sunday roast and its Monday leftovers.
Sandwich Poulet-Curry
In a French boulangerie, curry is a register, not a heat: a pinch of mild yellow powder in mayonnaise, rounded with raisins and apple. A cold chicken sandwich built on perfume.