Sandwich Tips & Techniques
One of the purposes for sandwich
bread is to give an edible covering for the food inside. The bread
must do this and more. Importantly, good quality breads supply
variety, texture, taste, and eye appeal to sandwiches, as well as
providing bulk and nutrients.
The most often used are Pullman
or sandwich loaves of white bread. They are long, rectangular
loaves that provide square slices of specified thickness, from 3/8
inch to 5/8 inch thick. You want your bread that is fine rather
than coarse texture and firm enough to spread well.
Other kind of bread adds
selection and compliments the filling. The following are some
possibilities:
-
Cinnamon bread
-
Cracked wheat
-
Focaccia
-
French or
Italian bread, split horizontally
-
Fruit and nut
breads
-
Pita bread
-
Raisin bread
-
Rolls,
including hard and soft rolls, hamburger and hot dog rolls, long
rolls for submarine sandwiches.
-
Rye and
pumpernickel
-
Whole wheat
For a great
sandwich, you want fresh bread. If the bread it stale or dry, you
don’t want it. Here are measures to make sure your bread is
fresh:
1. The bread
should be as fresh as possible. If not, it stales quickly.
Also, day old bread loses much of its freshness.
2. Keep your
bread tightly wrapped and in moisture-proof wrapping. This
stops it from drying and guards against picking up odors.
3. You should
not wrap French bread and other hard-crust breads. Wrapping
causes the crust to soften. They stale rapidly and it is best
to use them the day they are baked.
4. You want
to store bread at room temperature and away from ovens or hot
equipment. Do not refrigerate. Refrigerated bread becomes
stale faster.
5. If you
must keep bread more than a day, it may be frozen. Without
unwrapping, thaw frozen bread.
6. For
toasting, you may use day-old bread without loss of quality.
1. Protects
your bread from soaking up moisture from the filling.
2. They add
flavor.
3. They also
add moisture
You want butter soft enough so
that when you spread it, you do not tear the bread. You may soften
it by whipping in a mixer or by simply letting it stand at room
temperature for half an hour. You may use margarine as a
substitute. You may use flavored butters with the apt fillings.
You may prefer to use mayonnaise
because it adds more flavor. However, butter protects the bread
better than mayonnaise. Because of the danger of food borne
disease, you want to serve your mayonnaise sandwiches immediately
or refrigerated at once and kept refrigerated until you are ready
to eat.
The filling is the heart of the
sandwich. You may serve nearly any kind of food between two slices
of bread and it would taste great. Here are some possible
fillings, you may use separately or in combination.
Most sandwich meats are
pre-cooked; however, some you cook to order. Sliced meats dry out
and quickly lose flavor. Avoided slicing farther ahead than
necessary and keep sliced meats covered or wrapped. You may use
leftovers. However, only if they are of good quality and have been
correctly handled and stored to avoid contamination. Use thin
slices because they are tender and the sandwich is easier to eat.
In addition, many thin slices make a thicker sandwich than one or
two thick slices of the same total weight.
Like meats, cheese dries out
rapidly when unwrapped and sliced. When you slice ahead, your
slices should remain covered until ready to use.
The most popular salads for
sandwich filings are tuna salad, egg salad, chicken or turkey
salad, and ham salad.
Lettuce, tomato, and onion are
indispensable in sandwich production. In addition, nearly any
vegetable used in salads may also be included in sandwiches.
Hard-Cooked egg
Jelly
Peanut Butter
Simple hot sandwiches consist of
hot fillings, usually meats, between two slices of bread or two
halves of a roll. They may also contain items that are not hot,
such as a slice of tomato or raw onion on a hamburger. Hamburgers,
hot dogs, and all their variations are the most popular hot
sandwiches.
You make open-faced hot
sandwiches by placing buttered or unbuttered bread on a plate,
covering it with hot meat or other filling, and topping with a
sauce, gravy, cheese, or other topping. Some versions you brown
under the broiler before serving. You normally eat this type of
sandwich with a knife and fork.
Grilled sandwiches, you know also
as toasted sandwiches. They are simple sandwiches that you butter
on the outside and brown on the griddle or in a hot oven.
Sandwiches including cheese are popular for grilling.
You make simple cold sandwiches
with two slices of bread or two halves of a roll, a spread, and a
filling. Experts call them simple because you make them with just
two slices of bread, not because they are necessarily simple in
construction. Simple cold sandwiches range from a single slice of
cheese or meat between two slices of buttered bread to complex
assembly like the submarine sandwich (also called a hero sandwich
or a grinder), a long Italian roll filled with salami, ham,
capocollo, or bologna, provolone cheese, peppers, onions olives,
tomatoes, and more. Most popular sandwiches fall into the cold
category.
For a multi-decker sandwich, you
make it with more than two slices of bread (or rolls split into
more than two pieces) and with several ingredients in the filling.
The club sandwich is a popular multi-decker sandwich, made of
three slices of toast and filled with sliced chicken or turkey
breast, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and bacon. You cut it into
four triangles.
You make open-faced sandwiches
with a single slice of bread, like large canapés, which is
what they are. Tea sandwiches are small, fancy sandwiches
generally made from light, delicate ingredients. Importantly, you
trim bread of crusts.
The preparation of sandwiches
requires a great deal of handwork. Many individual motions may be
required especially if the sandwiches are multi-decker or have
several ingredients. Whether you are making sandwiches in quantity
or to order, your goals must be to reduce your motions to make the
production as efficient and quick as possible.
Any setup involves two elements:
ingredients and equipment.
Mix fillings, prepare spreads,
slice sandwich meats and cheeses, you separate lettuce leaves,
slice tomatoes, prepare garnishes, and so on. Simply, have
everything you need ready ahead of time, so there is nothing left
to do but put the ingredients together.
Arrange or store ingredients for
maximum efficiency. To reduce your movements to a minimum, the
ideal setup has everything you need within easy reach of both
hands. Depending on the kitchen layout, this may not be possible.
However, try to get as close to it as possible.
Arrange ingredients so you can
use both hands. For example, while the left hand reaches for the
bread, the right hand reaches for the butter spreader. Then, while
the right hand puts the spreader back, the left reaches for the
sliced ham. The right hand, on its way back form the butter, picks
up the slice of cheese and so on.
Two other considerations are
important while you are talking about ingredients.
Because you subject cold
sandwiches to a lot of handling and they are not cooked, it is
especially important that ingredients be properly refrigerated and
protected at all times.
You want to slice items by the
count and by weight. If portioning is by the count, you must take
care, during pre-prep, to slice to the proper thickness. If done
by weight, you can place each portion on squares of waxed paper
and stacked in a container.
For cold ingredients, you want
them as cold as possible or hot area for hot ingredients, such as
roasted meats.
They are the
basic requirements for sandwich making and are often the only
tools you need. The equipment includes spreaders, spatulas, and
knives, including a serrated knife and a sharp chef’s knife for
cutting the finished sandwich. A cutting board, of course, is also
important.
This equipment includes scoops
for fillings and a potion scale for other ingredients.
This is necessary
when making most hot sandwiches. You will use griddles, grills,
broilers, and deep fryers for cooking hot sandwich components. You
can use microwave ovens to heat ingredient or finished sandwiches.
Except for hamburgers or hot
dogs, you cut most sandwiches before serving. Cutting serves two
purposes: one, it makes eating and handling the sandwich easier.
Two, it makes an attractive presentation.
The first reason is by just
cutting the sandwich in half, or if it is very large or thick,
into thirds or quarters.
The second reason is displaying
the cut edges to the outside rather than the crust edges. If you
make the sandwich with great looking ingredients and it is
attractively garnished it will be tasty and nice-looking. You
serve little purpose by cutting and arranging the sandwich in
difficult ways.
You may present hamburgers and
other uncut sandwiches open-faced to display the attractive
ingredients. For example, you present a hamburger version often
called a California Burger with the meat on the bottom half of the
bun. Next to the sandwich, you add a lettuce leaf and a slice of
tomato on the top half of the bun.
1. Prepare and
collect all ingredients.
2. Gather
necessary equipment, including wrapping materials.
3. Arrange
bread sliced in rows on the tabletop.
4. Spread each
slice with butter or whatever spread is required.
5. Place
fillings evenly and nearly on alternate slices, leaving the
other slices plain. Fillings should not hand over the edges of
the bread. If the fillings is spreadable, spread it evenly to
the edges.
6. Top the
filled slices with plain buttered slices.
7. Stack two or
three sandwich and cut with a sharp knife.
8. To hold, do
one of the following.
a. Wrap
separately in plastic, waxed paper or sandwich bags.
b. Place in
storage pans, cover tightly with plastic wrap and over with
clean, damp towels. The towels mush not touch the
sandwiches; their purpose is to provide a moisture barrier
to help prevent drying.
9. Refrigerate
immediately and hold until served.
|
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License.