A burger at Digger's Diner, a restaurant in Concord, California.
out of 100 · outstanding
Outstanding, and the road to 90 is open.
A burger with layers outside the form; six of six roles.
More bitter 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.
grilled bun, toasted: 1/3 lb beef patty; bacon; melted bleu cheese; mayo; mustard; lettuce; tomatoes; pickles; onion.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.0 | 88th |
| acid | 1.5 | 88th |
| fat | 2.2 | 53rd |
| sweet | 0.4 | 56th |
| umami | 1.7 | 59th |
| heat | 0.3 | 74th |
| bitter | 0.5 | 90th |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| grilled bunscored as Burger Bun | bread | sweet 2 soft springy | the frame |
| 1/3 lb beef pattyscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | −4 |
| bacon | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 crispy chewy | −4 |
| melted bleu cheesescored as Blue Cheese (gorgonzola) | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 bitter 2 creamy soft melty | −4 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −4 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | −4 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | −3 |
| tomatoesscored as Tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | −1 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | −4 |
| 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 + Blue Cheese (gorgonzola): steakhouse pair: blue cheese on beef
- 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
- Outstanding, not legendary: nothing on this sandwich is house-made, named or exceptional.
All the sandwiches at Digger's Diner · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder