Recently, Boaz Frankel of the Your Favorite Sandwich podcast invited me to share my favorite sandwich in under a minute.

In a flash, my personal history of sandwiches flew through my head, starting with the ones my mother made using a Toas-tite Pie Iron, like two hinged metal clam shells that clamp sliced bread around a filling like cheese or apples dusted with cinnamon, and caramelizes it into a flying saucer-shaped pie with a molten center.

sltrib.com

…There were the 2-inch thick fresh crab salad on homemade white bread my parents bought us all at Gil Clark’s on Long Island before we caught the Fire Island Ferry. They were so packed with crab, you could only eat a half; we’d take the other half home to eat on the beach.

…And the legendary humped hard-boiled egg and anchovy sandwiches that Harry’s Bar in Venice is famous for. I ate my fill when I was the food stylist for The Harry’s Bar Cookbook; and the photographer and I had the run of the place.

Christopher Baker

…There was insanely extravagant sandwich I devised when some chef friends and I were experimenting with the pound of black truffles we’d pooled our resources to buy (decades ago when they were MUCH cheaper than they are now.) I was mulling the Jabugo ham I’d brought back from a recent trip to Spain, thinking of acorn fed pigs and the smooth nutty texture of cured ham whose fat spread like butter, when I had a flash of inspiration. I spread a thin slab of baguette with the fat and barely toasted it in the oven. Then I layered it with black truffle slices and a thin slice of Jabugo. It went back into the oven just until the heat warmed the truffles enough to release their flavor. That sandwich transported us.

…I think longingly of the open-face sandwiches I ate in Finland, on utterly coarse, chewy rye bread spread with sweet butter and topped with a perfectly-cured herring.

Vicky Wasik

There are a lifetime of plateless sandwiches I’ve made a la minute and eaten standing up:  a soft fried egg sandwiched between thin slices of prosciutto bread, or late night, sweet-tooth inventions like chocolate pastilles sandwiching peanut butter.

Tara Mann

But the best sandwich was the one a stranger made me after inviting me into her clapboard house in the West Virginia Appalachians for coffee.

You can hear the 40 second telling here.

Sally Schneider

 

The Ranchette has a nice tutorial about making a Toas-tite sandwich. (Amazon sells new Toas-tites (though we haven’t tried them); vintage Toas-tites can be found on Ebay).

Harry’s Bar sandwich from The Harry’s Bar Cookbook; photo by Christopher Baker

herring sandwich via Vicki Wasik for Eater

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8 replies on “My Favorite Sandwich via ‘What’s Your Favorite Sandwich?’

  1. That one,
    left me literally licking my lips,
    ..as I sit here,
    over a bowl of ketchup soup. ?

    Tomorrow,
    I’ll eat a ‘peanut butter and banana’,
    in your honour. ?

    gallagher

  2. Ah Sally, how fun! I have one of these round, long handle sandwich toaster from my mom’s household. Do ‘t use it much (that may change) but would never give it away…too many memories of four kids growing up in San Diego with toasted cheese from the stove top. Thanks for the memories! Susan

  3. I have my mom’s too, though I haven’t used it in years. But I will now. Need one of those flying-saucer pies!

  4. Sally, you have a great Radio voice and way of speaking–in addition to the great information you impart i have always loved listening to you talk with Lynne Rosetto Casper and i enjoyed your sandwich-telling here as well.
    and, being Finnish/Danish myself i agree with you on the herring sandwich, something my mother used to make for us all the time, often with added cucumber. (lunchtime at grade school was always a challenging experience). i love them to this day, but make the butter thicker and toast the chewy rye a bit, which gives it the most wonderful taste and chewy-crispy texture.

  5. Thanks for your very kind words.

    Yeah, I concur about thicker butter. When I got back from Finland, I was desperate to find a REAL rye bread. The best rye I’ve found in America is Ruis Bread from Nordic Breads, which can be gotten via mail order. I have yet to find Herring like the ones from Finland…sigh.

  6. oh great! thank you for the Rye recommendation!

    sadly, i’ve been using the German Organic Rye by Mestermacher..not too bad, but always felt cheated..it’s nowhere near as good as the Rye my mother used to make, and i’m just not a good bread-maker..

    i will definitely try the Nordic.

  7. ok, so i just ordered some–my that website: that bread looks like the REAL DEAL!
    AND Organic!!
    what a find, i can’t thank you enough..

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