A Meal in Bread

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It seems like wrapping bread around meats, cheeses and vegetables and calling it an easily eaten meal is pretty much universal. Sometimes the bread is cooked before the assembly, as in the sandwich, hamburger, hot dog or bao. Sometimes the bread is raw as in the empanada, calzone, runza, pasty and pot stickers or dumplings.

Some of these are designed to be easily eaten out of hand. Some, like the pasty, are typically served on a plate with gravy, a knife and fork. Some have complex flavor and some have very simple flavors. Some are messy to eat and some are very neat. 

Today I have been thinking about sandwiches and hamburgers. We’ll leave the dumplings and empanadas for another day.

Recently I picked up sandwiches from Schlotzsky’s. Doug and I remarked on how they not only hit the points for flavor blend, but also for construction. Usually when you put lettuce and tomato on a sandwich, there is slippage and half the sandwich ends up on the plate. What is their secret??

Bon Appetit suggests that you layer slick ingredients like tomato, cucumber or avocado next to ingredients that provide friction like meat, shredded lettuce or sprouts. They also recommend a slick of mayo or butter on the bread on top and bottom of the stack to prevent sogginess. 

One thing that has always been important to me is a balance between the bread and the fillings. I watched a video that turned hamburger making into a “sheet pan meal”. The whole idea was great, but then they ruined it by cooking little fat burgers that were half the size of the buns. Not only was it hard to get your mouth around all that meat, but you had at least 3 or 4 bites that were going to be nothing but bun. 

These are my sandwich/hamburger rules:

1. The fillings should exactly match the bread in width. 

2. The thickness of the fillings should be at least equal to the thickness of one bread slice and not much more. 

3. The whole thing should comfortably fit into your mouth for a bite without making you feel like you might have to dislocate your jaw. 

4. Every bite should include most, if not all, of the fillings.

5. The flavors should blend well with enough tart, salt and pepper to bring it together. 

6. Keep it neat or be realistic and make it a sit down meal with a knife and fork. (I’m not a big fan of things that make sandwiches messy like pouring Queso over them, sprinkling them with powdered sugar, or dipping them in broth.)

The Whataburger was fairly formative for me with regard to my ideas about hamburgers. They have meat that is precisely the size of the bun. The buns are fairly thin and the toppings stay put. This is what I look for in a burger. 

When I was pregnant the first time, I craved hamburgers. I knew what kind of hamburgers all of our favorite restaurants sold and whether they fit the list of requirements. Most of them had patties that didn’t even remotely fit on the buns. I never understood why this is so hard to understand. 

I remember that my daddy was the one who taught me that the spreads and fillings should go all the way to the edge of the sandwich. It’s not all about the bread, though that can make a big difference, it’s about the balance and that is created by the blend.

As with any other meal, when properly prepared, each bite is delicious. Bites may not be identical, but none of them leave you wondering, “Where’s the beef”?


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