Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Sandwichspace 32 and 33

32

This one was great! Frozen ciabatta, which was fine. Good even! Sauteed spinach and egg. Four thin slices of deli pastrami. This was maybe the best meat yet! Gave an extra salty kick to it. 9/10. A thick slice of pepper jack on top. This was also good, 7/10. 


Appearance 6/10, looked nice but not amazing.

Flavor 9/10, it was GOOD. Pastrami was awesome. The bread was great. This was pretty close.

33

Ok, this one was very sloppy. Frozen pao de quejido was, sub-optimal. I mean it was ok, but I think it lost something being frozen. Then 2 eggs scrambled mixed with lots of ground turkey and a splash of sauteed cabbage and pepper. Definitely went overboard with the meat, the whole thing was crumbly and fell apart. Though the turkey meat tasted good. Less next time for sure! 4/10. The cheese was gorgonzola. Yum. But looked like sausage gravy which was really weird. Maybe 4/10. Again, tasted good, but the whole thing was like a sloppy joe.


Appearance 3/10. Ugly and falling apart.

Flavor 6/10, good but not an entrant in the breakfast sandwich hall of fame.

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Sandwichspace 31

 Today's sandwich was a departure from previous attempts in that I used no meat at all. I vaguely intended to, I have some fancy ham, some bologna, chicken chunks, and sausage in the freezer. But just skipped it. I'd give no meat a 5/10, not bad, particularly if the rest of the sandwich is good and hearty. Bread was English toasting bread which toasted up nice. Eggs were two eggs scrambled with sauteed spinach. Cheese was gorgonzola crumbles. I sauteed them in the non-stick pan until it became like a sludge (haha, yum!). Then I poured it over the sandwich. Pretty good, 7/10 I'd say.


Appearance 5/10. I buttered the toasted bread on the side that was prettier. The gorgonzola looks like gravy, which is kinda repulsive. 

Flavor 7/10. Real good, I think meat won't necessarily be a part of the final endgame sandwich. Or at least not every time. 

Funny, I've found the egg style I really like right away. I can't wait for my kale to be ready to harvest, I hope it's as good as the spinach. I also planted spinach. I think I'll try to grow spinach next year. Also curious to try eggs with basil instead of spinach once my basil grows. And cheese I'm pretty satisfied with thick cut deli sharp cheddar, that might be the winner. A little boring, but dang it is good. Meat seems to be less important than I had imagined. It seems not inconceivable that I might not have meat in the day-to-day sandwich in the future. That seems healthier for sure. And given that no meats have really stood out as critical, I'm ok with that. I seem to have problems using up deli meat before it goes bad.

Friday, October 4, 2024

Sandwichspace 30

 30

Introduced expensive ultra thin sliced ham this time around. Just eaten raw the ham is leathery and very salty. I figured I'd loosen it up a bit by sautéing it. Good texture when done, still kind of salty. As part of the sandwich though it was pretty danged good, adds a salty tang and a tiny barely noticeable hammy flavor. 8/10. Then went sauteed spinach with two scrambled eggs, thick sliced cheddar, and English toasting bread. Went a little off script when I noticed that the remaining toasting bread was the same length and width (but not very tall). So sliced it laterally for a nice square slice of toast. That was pretty good. I think a standard toast slice is the right size for my sandwich. 


Appearance 7/10. Call me basic but the nice square sandwich sliced size bread is just right.

Flavor 9/10 there may be some wiggle room on this score, but it was really good. The bread was nice, perfect toast. Could have been a little more toasted, but very good. I really poured on the spinach for this and it was not a mistake. There was a smidge of extra water I could have squeezed out, but that wasn't too critical. The cheese I melted a bit in the microwave. 

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Sandwichspace 28 & 29

28

I was hopeful for English toasting bread. There was a time that I made it fairly frequently, though that recipe is lost in the sands of time. The current recipe is new, and it worked out pretty well. It uses a smidge of baking soda to create nice nooky-cranny-y bread. I toasted up an additional piece to eat as plain toast yesterday morning and it was pretty hard. Maybe unappealingly so. So I was a bit worried. In the end it softened up a bit while wrapped in foil on the way to work. The slice was smaller than I would have preferred, but I was very happy with it in the end, 8/10. Sauteed spinach and shallots mixed up with two scrambled eggs were good, but I'm not sure how much the shallots added, so I won't score them. Thick sliced deli cheddar and Canadian bacon rounded it out.


Appearance I dunno, 6/10 I guess. Not shockingly attractive. A larger, squarer slice of toast would be nice.

Flavor 8/10 the bread flavor was kinda nothing to write home about, but the texture was perfect. The rest was all good stuff. Maybe not quite as perfect as focaccia, but maybe a smidge fewer calories for not much loss of flavor.

29

This one was English toasting bread, sauteed spinach and egg, roast pork, and a new entry, thin sliced gruyere. The gruyere was maybe too thin to really be too noticeable, so 6/10.

Appearance 4/10. I mean, look at it.

Flavor 8/10 still good stuff. I think it's not worth the expense for gruyere, or the effort for that matter, I had to buy it in a wedge.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Sandwichspace 26 and 27

 The first 25 sandwiches!


26

So I made pao de quejido, a Brazilian cheese bread that uses tapioca flour. Typically I make it into little balls. So good! But I tried making like a sort of bun with it. It was good, but the texture was not ideal.


Possibly a little undercooked as well? Pretty good though. I think the bread was a 5/10 or so. Fantastic for a gluten free option, but probably not in the running. My first sandwich had sous vide scrambled eggs. Delicious, very custardy. They almost tasted cheesy without any cheese. But there was zero structural integrity, so these utterly fail for this purpose. 2/10


Cat hair on the plate, -10 points.




You can see how the egg just fell out of the sandwich. For meat had some leftover bits of rib steak from the previous night. Taste was good, texture was good, but I didn't feel it was a good fit for this breakfast sandwich that I'm trying to perfect, 6/10. Thick sliced deli cheddar, melted nicely.

Appearance 4/10, the bread looks underdone. The structural failings of the soft, custardy egg made for unappealing aesthetics.

Flavor 6/10, I mean, it tasted pretty good, but overall a fail on this one.

27

More cheese bread here. Some deli sliced roast pork, sauteed on the stove a bit for some browning. 6/10, I liked it, but not a huge standout. Perhaps a thicker slice would improve it? Mushroom omelet with two eggs. Surprisingly not a fan. Just call me Spinach Boy. Texture was not great, flavor was ok, otherwise cooked fine, just not feeling the shrooms. 5/10. Deli cheddar. PdQ bread.


Appearance 8/10, Bun looks good, pork looks amazing peeking out. Very nice look.

Flavor 5/10 unfortunately, the pork looked better than it tasted. Egg and cheese was fine. The bread was somehow too dry? What the hell? Not sure how that was even possible.

So Brazilian cheese bread was shockingly disappointing. Next up, English toasting bread.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Sandwichspace 25

 Lazy Saturday. So I decided to make one of the most time consuming breakfast sandwiches. I scrambled 4 eggs in the double boiler. It's a really good method. The eggs turned out light and fluffy as expected. But not a lot of structural integrity. So, a good method for cooking eggs, but not really ideal for this endeavor. So maybe like a 3/10. On taste alone, way better, maybe 8/10, but not so much better as to warrant the extra time and effort and OMG what a pita to clean the pot of the double boiler. Another fantastic innovation, I tried the frozen ciabatta rolls. They were fine. I would not have been able to tell they were frozen. Perhaps freezing makes them a smidge chewy but this type of roll is already chewy, so who knows! Will have to try freezing other types of bread. The meat was Canadian bacon. It was good. I microwaved it. Yes, a strange mix of lazy and industrious. But it was fine. Not as good as fried a bit to get some nice browning, but maybe fine, maybe not worth the effort there. Cheese was thick sliced deli sharp cheddar.


Appearance 6/10, it was nice looking.

Flavor 5/10 tasted good, but truly kind of fell apart. Cheese not well melted either, doh!

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Sandwichspace 23 & 24

 23:

Nothing new here, focaccia, sauteed spinach and two scrambled eggs, thick sliced deli sharp cheddar, and the last of the pancetta. Man, the pancetta is so salty.




I seem to have a habit of putting the ugly side of the focaccia on top, lol.

Appearance 6/10 it's alright I guess.

Flavor 6/10 

24:

Digging into a new meat, this time, Canadian bacon. Sauteed it up a bit. Flavor was great, I think the thickness was pretty good. Not my favorite, but better than I expected. 6/10 The rest was retreads, focaccia, spinach scramble, and thick cheddar slices. Melted nicely on top of the Canadian bacon.



Appearance 7/10 I think it's appealing. The circular Canadian bacon is aesthetically appealing and convenient.

Flavor 7/10 pretty good. All of it really well done. Maybe would have browned the meat a smidge more.