A sandwich at Pop's Deli & Grill, a deli in Hayward, California.
out of 100 · very good
Very good, with one move worth +13.
A club with layers outside the form; five of six roles.
Holding the summit: balance 0.80 or better
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.
hoagie roll (inferred from the kind of place), served cold: italian dry salami; turkey; ham; american cheese (low tier); natural swiss cheese; lettuce; tomatoes.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.3 | 90th |
| acid | 0.1 | 28th |
| fat | 2.5 | 62nd |
| sweet | 0.4 | 54th |
| umami | 2.6 | 90th |
| heat | 0.0 | n/a |
| bitter | 0.0 | 37th |
76 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| hoagie roll (inferred from the kind of place) | bread | soft crusty | the frame |
| italian dry salamiscored as Salami | protein | salt 4 fat 4 umami 4 chewy silky | −6 |
| turkey | protein | umami 2 soft juicy tender | −1 |
| ham | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | 0 |
| american cheese (low tier) | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 2 gooey creamy melty | −10 |
| natural swiss cheesescored as Swiss Cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | 0 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +9 |
| tomatoesscored as Tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +12 |
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
- Salami + Ham: salami and ham, the deli's double cure
- Turkey + Swiss Cheese: turkey and swiss, the deli default
- Turkey + Tomato: lean bird and summer tomato, the deli standard
- Ham + Swiss Cheese: cured pork and nutty swiss, an old alliance
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: balance 0.80 or better (0.17 short).
All the sandwiches at Pop's Deli & Grill · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder