A sandwich at The Napa Deli, a deli in Fairfield, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent. Small moves left on the board.
Reads as a fully realized turkey sandwich, six 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.
sliced sourdough, toasted: turkey; applewood bacon; cheddar; lettuce; tomato; sprouts; pesto; mayo.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.6 | 76th |
| acid | 0.7 | 57th |
| fat | 2.8 | 73rd |
| sweet | 0.1 | 19th |
| umami | 1.9 | 67th |
| heat | 0.0 | n/a |
| bitter | 0.2 | 70th |
92 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| sliced sourdoughscored as Sourdough | bread | soft chewy crusty | the frame |
| turkey | protein | umami 2 soft juicy tender | −1 |
| applewood baconscored as Bacon | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 crispy chewy | +6 |
| cheddarscored as Cheddar Cheese | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 soft gooey melty | −3 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +2 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +17 |
| sprouts | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +2 |
| pesto | sauce | fat 4 salt 2 umami 2 creamy saucy | −6 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −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
- Sourdough + Cheddar Cheese: grilled cheese law: sharp cheese, tangy crust
- Turkey + Bacon: lean bird borrows the pig's smoke
- Turkey + Tomato: lean bird and summer tomato, the deli standard
- Turkey + Mayonnaise: turkey and mayo, the deli default
- Bacon + Cheddar Cheese: bacon cheddar: smoke and sharp, burger law
- Bacon + Lettuce: cool crunch against hot smoke
- Bacon + Tomato: smoke against sweet acid, the blt core
- Cheddar Cheese + Tomato: grilled cheese and tomato, the lunch pair
- Tomato + Mayonnaise: 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 The Napa Deli · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder