Stacked: Just How Hard Is It To Make A Competent Sandwich?

Eat Me

Stacked

Just How Hard Is It To Make A Competent Sandwich?

Sam Holden

Fig. 1

By Henry Hong | Posted 9/12/2007

Not this again. I order the sandwich, make a quick assay, and am forced to conclude that the person who assembled it doesn't much care about sandwiches or sandwich eaters. I resign myself to rebuilding it. You see, as an irredeemably obsessed food freak, I take sandwiches quite seriously, and I demand uniform meat distribution.

The supposed origin of the term "sandwich" is well-known--an 18th-century English earl wanted a wieldy snack so he could keep playing cards with the boys. Of course, people all over the world had been surrounding meat with a bread case in some form or other far earlier, but that discussion is beyond the scope of this space. By "sandwich" I refer specifically to sliced meat between two slices of square bread. In this basic configuration, assembly is the only step over which end users have any control. And really what's involved is merely stacking (possibly with a subprocedure of condiment application)--exceedingly simple. So, assuming a modicum of quality for the ingredients, is it not reasonable to expect most sandwiches to be good most of the time?

And yet I find myself having to rearrange the corned beef on my Reuben to cover the entire slice of bread in a layer of even depth. The professional to whom I paid $9 apparently felt that arranging meat into a spheroid mound was a superior strategy. Clearly, mounded sandwiches result in some bites having too much meat and others too little. Halved diagonally, egregious offenders can leave an eater with as many as six meatless bites. This is unacceptable. Still, as I suck the Thousand Island dressing from my fingers, I ponder whether a sane person would think about such things. Later that day at happy hour, when buzzed enough to rant on the topic, I fully expected to be dismissed as nerdily deranged.

But an amazing thing happened: Not only did people not mock me, but they commiserated. Realizing this hitherto hidden, shared frustration, I knew what Milhouse must have felt when he met his Shelbyville doppelgänger. Even the obscure subject of cheese tessellation, which has been making the rounds on online foodie spots lately, elicited lively debate. Cheese tessellation refers to tiling the triangular cheese slices found at Subway in an alternating orientation manner, which yields better coverage than Subway's default overlapping end-to-end method. Subway customer service assured me that its cheese-arrangement policy is arbitrary and that tessellation requests would be accommodated. Indeed, all three area shops I visited obliged.

I subsequently conducted a casual survey, and a significant majority of respondents were aware and disapproved of mounding. It appears anti-mounding sentiment was not so marginal after all. Ah, sweet vindication.

The other aspect of sandwich construction is the thickness of filling. The bread, though essentially just a barrier to protect your hands from meat juice, contributes flavor and texture. Thus the amount of bread is relevant, and a ratio of meat to bread thickness is more useful than discrete amounts. I set about conducting a quick and dirty poll to quantify popular preference.

Carrying actual sandwiches around in triple-digit heat was not an attractive prospect, so I drew up a set of crude diagrams representing cross-sections of varying meat/bread proportions. I then approached 20 random people and asked each to pick the diagram that represented the ideal sandwich (see Fig. 1, below). Predictably, no one picked C, which had the lowest meat/bread ratio (least amount of meat compared to bread). Surprisingly, there were also no votes for B, which had the highest meat/bread ratio. Instead, 19 of the 20 subjects chose diagram A. Diagram A is special because, on a lark, I used the golden ratio (1.62/1) to determine its measurements. Weird, no?

Next, my incredibly patient girlfriend and I set aside an afternoon to traverse Baltimore in search of a properly constructed sandwich. Again, for the sake of simplicity I considered only bread and meat--turkey specifically. Vegetable ingredients, such as lettuce or sprouts, and even tomato slices, can be of inconsistent volume and could skew results. Random fact: While on a side mission investigating vegetable sandwich components, I discovered that the powerhouse sandwich was invented right here in Maryland, at David's Natural Market in Columbia some time in the 1980s. In any case, we measured bread thickness at the thickest point to offset any compression that may have occurred during handling, and meat thickness was averaged to account for mounding. The second criterion was even coverage, which was judged subjectively from both overhead and cross-section perspectives.

Most sandwiches came within 10 percent of the golden ratio, with Harry's Deli in the Northeast Market on the bottom with a 1.25/1 ratio, and Beach Bums of Federal Hill topping out with a staggering 2.67/1. Its sandwich also had the best coverage score, with even thickness right up to all edges. The Charles Village Eddie's Market had the most severe mounding, with highly exposed corners, though to be fair, the sandwich preparer did confess to being hungover.

My mom had a carry-out when I was growing up, and I assume it was her sandwich-making style that serves as my archetype. A recent conversation confirmed that her disdain for "everything in the middle" sandwiches runs deep. She recalled her habit of fastidiously leveling the tuna salad in her sandwiches those many years ago, while I noted how inexplicably pervasive the practice of mounding is even today (friends and relatives elsewhere confirm it is a national issue). Eventually we both agreed that the effort it takes to properly make a sandwich is minimal, and thus our angst is justified. By this time we were whipped into a froth, yelling and gesticulating over the remains of several brutally dissected turkey-on-whites. Must be genetic.

Eat Me archives

More from Henry Hong

At the Root (10/28/2009)
Going beyond potatoes for starchy holiday side dishes

Spanish Fry (8/26/2009)
Learning to make paella on the grill

Raising Dough (7/1/2009)
The search for the perfect fried sweet

southerndad

3 comments.

Member since 8/8/2007

I believe that the “mounding” is a result of mass media marketing. As the preparer you mound up the meat in the middle and then cut it in half and open it up for he customer to see. This is meant to awe the customer with the huge amount of food they think they are getting. This is clearly an example where presentation takes precedence over proper preparation. Yes everyone rearranges the meat but they remember that first look. Next time they want a big sandwich this is the image the vendor wants to come to their minds eye.

Great article. Your best one yet!! I now look forward to each issue so I can see what the “Food Nerd” has to say.

Posted 9.12.2007 9:16 AM

peppah

2 comments.

Member since 8/8/2007

"I demand uniform meat distribution." - yeah, me too! Wassup with all the meat in the middle! So unsatisfying at the last bite.

Photo comment: That sandwich is stacked. But not stacked enough that my mouth can't wrap around.

Posted 9.12.2007 11:39 AM

hoooah

23 comments.

Member since 9/12/2007

I am not alone!!!! sandwich places in baltimore, read and take notes!!!!

Posted 9.12.2007 12:40 PM

kats

2 comments.

Member since 8/8/2007

WHO I ask you! Who uses the Fibernaci sequence to evaluate sandwich construction???? That's serious dedication to the art of sandwich construction! Is there a Best Food Nerd of Baltimore award.. i didn't see it on the voting list :)

Posted 9.12.2007 1:10 PM

B

15 comments.

Member since 8/8/2007

Those mass marketing fat cats have screwed us again! I agree, best article yet.

Posted 9.12.2007 6:01 PM

stevestep

1 comments.

Member since 9/13/2007

I agree that the "mounding" of lunch meat is evil marketing. Looks like a lot, but really it isn't. I mean does anybody do that at home? No, I take pride in making a good sandwich. May sound like not a big deal, but it's really all about caring about food. Thank you for the article I really enjoyed it.

Posted 9.13.2007 11:41 AM

RMW

2 comments.

Member since 8/13/2007

I recommend you take a trip to the lovely Strip District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to experience the pleasure and decadence of what I regard as the nation's greatest sandwich -- Primanti Bros. This is a a sandwich that was designed to accommodate the needs of truckers passing though said warehouse district late at night, jonesing a meat-n-potatoes meal that they could eat with one hand whilst driving. The solution is somewhat reuben-like. It's home-made Italian bread with a handful of french fries, then a handful of delicious sweet-n-sour coleslaw, then a lone tomato slice mashed on top of the meat and cheese (my regular is pastrami).

The really remarkable thing, though, is how, considering the irregular size of the bread cuts at Primanti's, I've never had a meatless bite from one of their sandwiches. I believe that mounding is negated by the pre-application frying process. They toss your meat, whatever it may be, on the grill for about 30 seconds (presumably to melt the cheese they put on top of it), and it gets properly spread out because of this little touch.

It just goes to show, every step counts in sandwich-preparation. If you're interested further, National Geographic ran some really juicy pics of Primanti's sandwiches a few years back:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0308/feature6/index.html

Go Steelers,

RMW

Posted 9.13.2007 11:51 AM

foodnerd

67 comments.

Member since 2/21/2007

RMW-

Ah yes, the famous Primanti Bros. sandwich - I do know of it and need to try it. Every time I pass through Breezewood, I consider making the detour just to get one. But then I would be surrounded by Steelers fans, and who wants that? Go Ravens! I do appreciate though that true sandwich appreciation transcends even division rivalries, if only just barely. Actually a football/sandwich road trip would be cool as shit! Let me know if you're interested.

-Henry

Posted 9.13.2007 2:01 PM

awken

2 comments.

Member since 9/15/2007

I don't know. I used to eat a PowerHouse in Towson at a Natural Foods place that was a yellow-painted hippie house maybe on Fairmount Ave or so. And for sure it was in the 70's because by the 80's I was out of here.

But nice article anyway.

Posted 9.15.2007 6:37 PM

foodnerd

67 comments.

Member since 2/21/2007

@AK-

I thought it was pretty weird too, I always assumed the powerhouse originated in the 70's on the left coast somewhere. Even prior to actually asking David's explicitly, all research on the powerhouse sandwich seemed to point to Maryland. In fact, in the 50's there was a place here that served a burger variant called a powerhouse, but the sandwich as we know it, from everything I've seen/read/heard, did indeed get its current configuration and name in Columbia, in the 80's. If you can remember the name of the place that would be great, but in any case it's a dispute you would have to take up with David's. They are pretty confident about it,

Posted 9.16.2007 10:52 AM

spudnut59

1 comments.

Member since 9/12/2007

I LOVE this story. Without attention to detail, what's the point of......eating a sandwich......cooking.....living?

Check out Lunch Encounter, a blog devoted to sandwiches!

www.midnightsnack.wordpress.com

In the next coupla days there will be a long post focusing on Pittsburgh 'wich spots exclusively.

Snack

Posted 9.16.2007 11:15 AM

food and math yum

1 comments.

Member since 9/17/2007

Seems I was introduced to Powerhouse Sandwiches no later then 1980 as a soph at JHU. There used to be a food coop run out of the garage on St Paul between 33rd and 34th. I spent some time there, having some interest in the young lady who was running it that year, and while I never got far (OK anywhere :) with her, I learned a lot about foods that served me well ever since.

So I would say no later then that. Any claim to making the sandwhich in the mid 80s is bogus. I do confess that googling "powerhouse sandwich" brings up a lot of Baltimore menus and not much from anywhere else.

I am now in the heart of the California farm belt, and it is sad that such sandwiches are not de riguer here. They are unheard of. Unbelievably, in this town of 40K people surrounded by hundreds, well probably thousands, of square miles of the most fertile farm land in the world, my restaurant choices are McDonalds (2 within 3 blocks), Dennys, Quiznos, Subway, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Round Table, Starbucks, Long John Silvers and much more of the same, including regional chains. Every night is depressing indeed come dinner time. Subway is the closest thing to healthy there is. But my name ain't Jared, and I can't eat there every meal, even if there are 3 of them around town.

You'd think there'd be a decent Mexican place, and maybe there is, but I haven't found it yet (here only a couple of months). Yesterday was browsing in Smart & Final, and was so depressed to realize even the local non chain restaurants, few and far between as they may be, are just re-packaging the same dreck from the giant cans I could get myself. The difference is I don't have a deep fat fryer at home. Ah that is the a

Did I mention that I was at the County Fair this weekend, and there was NO celebration of the farming of fruits and vegetables here, only some show animals from 4H kids? Or that the lines of food for the corndogs and other crap (nothing remotely healthy - I chose to go hungry) was lined with 300 lb adults, 200 lb teenagers, and god help me 150 lb tweeners and below? Where do you buy a tshirt anyway for a 9 year old boy who is 4 feet tall and 6 feet around top to bottom like a fireplug?

I do look forward to messing with the kids at Subway about the cheese tesselation and the sandwich coverage - I have actcually been trying to lay off the cheese there but this might be fun. Any chance to teach about the practical applications of math. I did mention I was at JHU, right? :)

PS - a similar experiment may be to track the topping coverage on rice dishes, e.g. at a Chinese place. Are you getting less food if the rice is mounded as oppsed to uniform depth?.

And I kind of always wondered when I used to buy steamed shrimp at John Stevens (mmm did I mention there is no such thing as seafood here at all save a local grocery where the fish look like they were placed on ice only after the flies were allowed their heary feast?) why not serve it ina dish with sides, even a bowl, so that we could see we are getting the same amount each time since we can't really weigh it ourselves despite payng by the pound?

Signed -

Mourning the Disappearence of the Powerhouse Sandwich

Posted 9.17.2007 8:14 PM

foodnerd

67 comments.

Member since 2/21/2007

MDPS-

Wow that is some depressing shit. But you know, in my research I recall seeing something about powerhouse sandwiches being served near JHU at a place called "Health Concern", which vaguely rings a bell. Was that something you posted? Also, the Subway Veggie sub is a travesty. Just all the free add-ons, I hate that! As far as mounding on top of rice, I can see your point but it's not quite as deceptive or as detrimental to the overall eating experience, imo, since you are essentially looking and eating down, whereas in a sandwich you are approaching on the horizontal plane (relative to the sandwich). Asking for the cheese to be tessellated at Subway is indeed a pretty fun thing to do - when it's not busy. Trust me on this one.

-Henry

Posted 9.18.2007 2:21 PM

gracayy

2 comments.

Member since 8/8/2007

why do you know so much about EVERYTHING. I never knew food could be so informing. I sent you an email! Love you

Posted 9.21.2007 11:27 AM

mizteejay

1 comments.

Member since 9/23/2007

And here I thought I was going to be slick, sneaking in a post about Primanti's (I lived in the Pittsburgh area for almost 30 years) and here RMW has so ELOQUENTLY beaten me to the punch!...

Even for a Ravens fan, I'd say it's worth the detour. Make the run on game day for extra excitement. I don't get to visit home often but EVERY time I do I make a stop through Primanti's before heading home.

Sandwich purists of the world unite! Great article! (oh yeah and GOOOO STEELERS)

Posted 9.23.2007 6:01 PM

foodnerd

67 comments.

Member since 2/21/2007

I will pay handsomely for a Primanti's brought back from Pittsburgh, even if it means giving cash to a Steeler's fan. Wearing a jersey to the exchange however is a deal breaker. Fair notice.

Posted 9.26.2007 1:54 PM

ko1

4 comments.

Member since 3/7/2008

In the mid-70s they not only served Powerhouses at the aforementioned place in Towson (Nature's Cupboard of Love, or something like that), but Green Earth in Mt Vernon and Golden Temple in Midtown also served them. I had all 3 while in high school, so we're talking 73-74. I'm not sure who created them. The Ameche's Powerhouses in the 60s were great, too, a local version of a Big Mac before McDonald's had one I believe Kroc stole the idea from them and Gino's (which called theirs the Giant), which was really owned by the same chain as the principals were Baltimore Colts Alan Ameche and Gino Marchetti.

Posted 3.9.2008 6:02 PM