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Sandwich Époisses

Époisses cheese on bread; very strong, washed rind.

The Sandwich Époisses is the rare cheese sandwich where the cheese is spooned, not sliced. Époisses is a Burgundian cow's-milk cheese whose washed rind is rubbed repeatedly with brine and marc de Bourgogne, and at ripeness the paste goes so soft and so pungent that it spreads like a savory paste rather than holding an edge. The build follows from that: a split crusted loaf, the Époisses laid thick onto the crumb, perhaps a film of butter underneath, and little else.

The constraint is that the cheese brings no structure and no restraint. It is salty and barnyard-strong, so a second loud ingredient would only fight it; it is near-liquid at its peak, so the bread has to be a proper crust with a tight crumb or the sandwich collapses. Cold, the paste firms and the flavor mutes, so it is best eaten while the cheese is at room temperature and at its most molten. The successful version is close to bare and trusts the cheese to be the entire event.

The Sandwich Époisses sits with the regional cheese builds the catalog groups under Baguette Fromage. Its specific contribution is a marc-washed, spoon-soft cheese that is the whole sandwich rather than a layer in it.

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