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 reuben, three of six roles on the board.
Holding the summit: a finished composition
More salt 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.
sliced rye, pressed: pastrami; sauerkraut; swiss; dijon.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.3 | 90th |
| acid | 1.4 | 86th |
| fat | 1.7 | 33rd |
| sweet | 0.0 | n/a |
| umami | 2.0 | 74th |
| heat | 0.3 | 73rd |
| bitter | 0.3 | 75th |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| sliced ryescored as Rye Bread | bread | bitter 2 soft crusty | the frame |
| pastrami | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | +11 |
| sauerkraut | acid | acid 4 salt 2 pickled wet | +15 |
| swissscored as Swiss Cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | +8 |
| dijon | 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
- Rye Bread + Pastrami: pastrami on rye, the new york standard
- Pastrami + Sauerkraut: peppery beef, sour kraut: the reuben axis
- Pastrami + Swiss Cheese: melted swiss rounds peppered beef
- Sauerkraut + Swiss Cheese: melted swiss rounds the kraut's sour
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: a finished composition (0.06 short).
All the sandwiches at The Napa Deli · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder