A burger at Holder's Country Inn Cupertino, a restaurant in Cupertino, California.
out of 100 · outstanding
Outstanding, and the road to 90 is open.
Reads as a fully realized roast beef, five of six roles on the board.
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.
brioche bun, toasted: charbroiled angus patty; chili; jack; cheddar cheese; onions; lettuce; tomato; pickles; special sauce.
Much of this build is inferred from the name; the score is a reading, and it stays out of Holder's Country Inn Cupertino's typical score.
Worth a look: ingredient not in the pantry: Chili, Special Sauce.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.9 | 85th |
| acid | 1.3 | 83rd |
| fat | 2.0 | 45th |
| sweet | 0.5 | 63rd |
| umami | 1.7 | 61st |
| heat | 0.1 | 48th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 51st |
98 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| brioche bunscored as Brioche | bread | fat 2 soft | the frame |
| charbroiled angus pattyscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | +7 |
| chili | not scored | ||
| jackscored as Monterey Jack | protein | fat 3 salt 2 umami 2 soft creamy melty | 0 |
| cheddar cheese | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 soft gooey melty | +17 |
| onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | 0 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | 0 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | 0 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | 0 |
| special sauce | not scored |
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 + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Beef + Pickle (cucumber): pickle brine against rich beef
- Monterey Jack + Cheddar Cheese: sharp and mild, the taco-shop blend
- Cheddar Cheese + Onion: cheddar and onion, the ploughman's pair
- Cheddar Cheese + Tomato: grilled cheese and tomato, the lunch pair
How to raise it
- Outstanding, not legendary: nothing on this sandwich is house-made, named or exceptional.
All the sandwiches at Holder's Country Inn Cupertino · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder