The crisp sandwich is food’s equivalent of selecting your nose. We all do it. Yes, even you. And, particularly in private, it can be a source of extensive satisfaction. However just hardly ever do you find a few brave souls– chapeau!, Jack Monroe, Nadiya Hussain and Emma Freud– going to speak about it in public.
This is a processed-food product so persuasive that even a chef as naturally handcrafted as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall can not withstand it (” It’s really tough to beat an excellent crisp sandwich.”), yet– bar that curious break out of crisp butty cafes in 2015– we jointly disregard serious analysis of what makes it such a comfort-food classic. We repent. Inhibited by snobbery. Waiting for a Spanish chef to deconstruct it or a hip Williamsburg diner to reassure us it is cool.
But who has time for that? At How to Eat– the series checking out how finest to consume Britain’s preferred foods– there is no regret, only enjoyment. For that reason, let us settle when and for all on the crisp sandwich’s ultimate type.
Naturally, HTE is totally in favour of genuine bread– in the ideal situations. This is not one of them. Put the sourdough back. Step away from the worthwhile loaves. The crisp sandwich is implied to be an uninhibited pig-out, which will be messed up by utilizing earnest wholemeal or seemingly healthy seeded breads. Not only will their flavour container horribly with the crisps, but the pious presence of those self-righteous seeds and grains will cast a distressed pall over proceedings, as if the bread is judging your filling and finding it wantonly gluttonous.
Rather, you require a mass-produced white chopped loaf that, in its milky blandness, will provide more cushioning texture than flavour. It ought to be a neutral delivery lorry for your selected crisp.
Not all supermarket loaves are created equal. Lots of are as light and airy as packaging foam, with none of its resilience. These delicate breads break down at the very first flash of a butter knife. Preferably, you wish to by force squash the top layer of your sandwich down as you make it, to mould it around the crisps, so it nicely maintains them as you eat. For that, you need fairly dense squishy bread, such as Jackson’s white bloomer or– if you can stomach the company’s ₤ 25,000 donation to the Conservative celebration in 2010– possibly the world’s finest crisp-sandwich bread, Warburtons toastie loaf.
If using a less politically compromised cob, bap or roll, prevent those with firm crusts that need you to tear at them. You will spread crisp shrapnel everywhere. Because regard, a baguette is the least-practical crisp sandwich bread. Do not consider toasting your bread. This is already a dry sandwich.
Spread
Like much of the very best things in life, a crisp sandwich requires lubrication. Eventually, you will slather your slice with what you can pay for. Margarine works, particularly on a crisp sandwich. It oils the wheels of mastication without positively boosting flavour. However if you do have a pound or three spare, HTE is unbending in its view that butter is among the very best financial investments in the supermarket chiller cabinet. Yes, its abundant creaminess is a marginal gain in this context. However what is the pursuit of perfection if not the painstaking build-up of such gains?
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