A burger at Susie Q's Pizza, a restaurant in Hayward, California.
out of 100 · outstanding
Outstanding, and the road to 90 is open.
A burger with layers outside the form; six of six roles.
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.
burger bun (inferred from the kind of sandwich), toasted: beef patty; bacon; jalapeño; house sauce (high tier); cheddar cheese; lettuce; tomato; pickles; crispy onions.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.1 | 90th |
| acid | 1.4 | 85th |
| fat | 2.3 | 55th |
| sweet | 0.8 | 82nd |
| umami | 1.7 | 60th |
| heat | 0.2 | 69th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 54th |
100 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| burger bun (inferred from the kind of sandwich) | bread | sweet 2 soft springy | the frame |
| beef pattyscored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | 0 |
| bacon | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 crispy chewy | 0 |
| jalapeño | texture | heat 4 crunchy fresh raw | 0 |
| house sauce (high tier)scored as Burger Sauce | sauce | fat 4 salt 2 acid 2 sweet 2 creamy saucy | 0 |
| cheddar cheese | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 soft gooey melty | 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 |
| crispy onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | 0 |
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 + Pickle (cucumber): pickle brine against rich beef
- Beef + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Bacon + Jalapeño: jalapeno popper logic: green heat and smoke
- 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
- Jalapeño + Cheddar Cheese: jalapeno cheddar: green heat in sharp fat
- Cheddar Cheese + Tomato: grilled cheese and tomato, the lunch pair
- Cheddar Cheese + Onion: cheddar and onion, the ploughman's pair
How to raise it
- Outstanding, not legendary: the menu does not name its bread.
All the sandwiches at Susie Q's Pizza · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder