A burger at Barneys Gourmet Hamburgers (Solano), a sandwich shop in Berkeley, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent, with one move worth +19.
A burger with layers outside the form; five of six roles.
Holding the summit: balance 0.80 or better
More sweet 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.
Burger Bun (bread not stated on the menu), toasted: hamburger patty; cheddar cheese; bbq sauce; bacon; sautéed onions.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.0 | 87th |
| acid | 0.7 | 56th |
| fat | 2.4 | 61st |
| sweet | 1.1 | 90th |
| umami | 2.2 | 82nd |
| heat | 0.1 | 49th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 39th |
86 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burger Bun | bread | sweet 2 soft springy | the frame |
| hamburger pattyscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | −5 |
| cheddar cheese | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 soft gooey melty | −6 |
| bbq sauce | sauce | sweet 4 salt 2 acid 2 silky saucy | +18 |
| bacon | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 crispy chewy | −10 |
| sautéed onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | +13 |
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 + Cheddar Cheese: the cheeseburger pair: sharp on seared beef
- Beef + BBQ Sauce: brisket law: bbq sauce on smoked beef
- Beef + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Cheddar Cheese + BBQ Sauce: sharp cheddar stands up to sweet bbq
- Cheddar Cheese + Bacon: bacon cheddar: smoke and sharp, burger law
- Cheddar Cheese + Onion: cheddar and onion, the ploughman's pair
- BBQ Sauce + Bacon: smoke on smoke: bacon under bbq sauce
- BBQ Sauce + Onion: onion sharpens sweet bbq sauce
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: balance 0.80 or better (0.11 short).
All the sandwiches at Barneys Gourmet Hamburgers (Solano) · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder