In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef and culinary instructor Frank Proto demonstrates how to make the best deli-quality sandwich you've ever had at home.
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00:00 I'm Frank Proto, professional chef and culinary instructor,
00:02 and today I'm gonna show you all the techniques
00:04 on how to make the perfect sandwich.
00:06 We're talking bread, we're talking toppings,
00:08 condiments, texture, flavor, acidity,
00:10 all the great elements that make a perfect sandwich.
00:13 This is Sandwich 101.
00:15 In order to make the most perfect sandwich,
00:18 we gotta start with the most important thing, the bread.
00:22 [upbeat music]
00:24 I think the bread is the most important part
00:26 of the sandwich because the last thing I ever want
00:28 is my sandwich to fall apart.
00:30 With sturdy ingredients like turkey and cheese,
00:33 I have a sturdier bread that will hold them up.
00:35 With lighter ingredients, maybe like a tuna salad
00:38 or an avocado, you want a lighter bread
00:41 because it can handle it.
00:42 They won't fall apart under the pressure.
00:44 I'm using a seeded Italian loaf.
00:46 I have sesame seeds.
00:48 Not only do they add texture,
00:49 they add flavor to the sandwich,
00:50 and that's probably my favorite sandwich bread to use.
00:53 So the first thing I'm gonna do
00:54 is slice my bread all the way through.
00:57 I've seen lots of sandwiches that leave a hinge there,
01:00 and what I don't like about that
01:01 is that people will pile the fillings in the middle,
01:04 and then when you fold this over the top,
01:07 you get a lump of fillings here and no fillings here.
01:10 So I like to open it all the way.
01:12 No hinge sandwiches for me.
01:14 [upbeat music]
01:16 First thing I put on the bottom is the cheese.
01:19 The cheese protects the bread from getting soggy.
01:21 I want it to hold back all the juices
01:24 so that it soaks into the top of the bread.
01:26 I'm using provolone.
01:27 It adds some sharpness.
01:29 It adds some creaminess,
01:30 and it also adds a lot of balance to our sandwich.
01:33 I don't want it to be that flavor forward.
01:34 I want it to be a background flavor.
01:36 I just wanna fill the bottom of the bread.
01:38 You'll notice that I'm trying to get to the edges here
01:41 because I want every bite to be equal.
01:43 A lot of times you see a sandwich,
01:44 everything's piled in the middle,
01:46 and then you have a lump of turkey and cheese
01:49 that's this big in the middle,
01:51 and then you take a bite on the end
01:52 and there's nothing there.
01:53 Cheese is down.
01:54 I'm gonna start with my turkey.
01:55 I'm using a nice deli turkey, sliced, not super thin.
02:00 I like to kind of stack it up a little
02:02 and fold it a few times.
02:03 Layering your sandwich is really important,
02:06 but it's even more important
02:07 if you're using more than one type of meat.
02:09 I'm keeping it super simple.
02:11 I'm using just turkey, but if you have different meats,
02:14 you wanna consider those layers, right?
02:16 You wanna make sure
02:16 that there's not one overpowering the other.
02:19 [upbeat music]
02:21 So I have my turkey layer on my sandwich.
02:23 I have really nice pieces of romaine here.
02:25 You can use iceberg.
02:27 I like romaine.
02:28 It gives crunch.
02:29 It gives a little freshness,
02:30 and I like to shred it nice and fine.
02:33 If I have a whole leaf of lettuce,
02:35 I'm gonna take one bite.
02:36 The lettuce is gonna come out in that one bite.
02:38 If I shred the lettuce,
02:39 I get that beautiful bite every single time
02:42 throughout the sandwich.
02:43 The next layer on this sandwich is the onion.
02:45 Now, I choose red onion.
02:47 You can use white onion.
02:48 I think people eat with their eyes sometimes,
02:51 and red onions are beautiful.
02:52 Put 'em on your sandwich.
02:53 Make your sandwich prettier.
02:55 And I wanna try and slice this as thin as possible.
02:58 I'm not putting a ton of onion on.
03:00 I want onion flavor,
03:02 but I don't wanna go out into public
03:03 and everyone smell my onion breath all day.
03:06 And again, when we layer our sandwich,
03:08 we wanna make sure that there's a little bit of onion
03:10 in every single bite.
03:12 The next thing we're gonna do is use tomato.
03:15 I have something called a crumado or a brown tomato.
03:18 Tomato adds moisture.
03:19 It adds acidity.
03:20 It adds texture.
03:21 It adds so much to the sandwich.
03:22 Don't be afraid to use them,
03:24 but you don't wanna overload on the tomato
03:26 because it also makes your sandwich slippery.
03:28 Put your tomatoes side by side.
03:30 Don't stack them together.
03:31 If you do stack them together, what's gonna happen?
03:33 Everything's gonna slide apart.
03:35 Condiments and dressings are really important
03:39 because you don't want your sandwich to be dry.
03:41 You want it to have some texture, some moisture, some flavor.
03:44 You want all the elements to be in balance.
03:46 And I'm using here 100% olive oil,
03:49 not extra virgin olive oil.
03:51 If we use extra virgin olive oil,
03:52 it's gonna be really strong.
03:54 And for the most part, we want a little olive oil flavor
03:56 with some of the fat and moisture from the olive oil.
03:59 I'm using a nice red wine vinegar.
04:01 Again, don't overpower.
04:02 Don't use too much.
04:03 Vinegar adds acidity to our sandwich.
04:06 The cheese is rich.
04:07 The mayonnaise is rich.
04:09 The tomatoes have acidity,
04:10 but the vinegar is gonna bump that up
04:12 and give us some balance
04:13 so our sandwich does not get boring.
04:15 A common pitfall when you're making a sandwich
04:16 is people don't think you need to season it.
04:19 Anytime we make food to eat, you should season your food.
04:21 I'm gonna use a little salt and pepper
04:23 right on top of my tomatoes.
04:25 There are thousands of different condiments
04:27 you can put on your sandwich.
04:28 I like to use Hellman's mayonnaise.
04:30 It's just been a standard in my life since I'm a child.
04:33 I like to put my mayonnaise directly on the bread.
04:36 And what this does is it makes a little rain jacket
04:39 for my bread.
04:40 Mayonnaise is made from mostly fat,
04:42 so the mayonnaise is gonna stop my sandwich
04:45 from getting soggy.
04:46 You wanna spread it all the way to the edges.
04:49 I don't mind if the bread soaks up
04:50 a little bit of the juices,
04:52 but at the end of the day, I don't want it to be a soggy mess
04:54 and then we can top the sandwich.
04:56 Nice and easy.
04:57 I don't want everything to fall apart,
04:58 so just press it down lightly so it holds together.
05:01 If you're worried about everything falling out, too bad.
05:04 Sometimes when you shred things, things might fall out.
05:07 That's just an extra snack after you finish your sandwich.
05:10 [upbeat music]
05:12 Believe it or not,
05:13 how you cut a sandwich is important as well.
05:15 With this sandwich, a little less so,
05:17 but if you had a square sandwich,
05:18 you really wanna consider how you're gonna cut it.
05:20 Do you wanna get that best bite possible
05:22 in every bite of your sandwich?
05:24 I use a serrated knife in a sawing motion.
05:27 You don't wanna just wrench down on that sandwich
05:29 and squish everything.
05:30 I'll reserve this half for a good friend.
05:32 Cut the other part in half.
05:34 One thing I like to do also when I plate up
05:37 is that we wanna see those fillings.
05:39 So we put the fillings facing out
05:40 towards the person you're serving the sandwich to.
05:43 Some of the other considerations I have
05:44 when I make a sandwich
05:45 is what am I gonna serve on the side of it.
05:47 I like dark russet potato chips.
05:49 They're a little bitter.
05:50 They're nice and dark and caramelized.
05:52 I love 'em.
05:53 I think they fit really well with my sandwich.
05:55 And then pickles.
05:56 I like these little kosher grills, tiny pickles.
05:59 They don't have all the seeds in them and stuff.
06:01 This is kinda like as you bite your sandwich,
06:03 you take a bite of the pickle.
06:04 You alternate all those textures and flavors.
06:07 And there you have it.
06:08 This is a perfect sandwich.
06:10 No sandwich is complete without a drink.
06:12 Get your stance ready and take a bite.
06:14 That was the perfect bite.
06:17 And why was it a perfect bite?
06:18 Because we were intentional about the layers that we made.
06:21 We were intentional about the ingredients we chose.
06:24 Nice sharp cheese, crunchy lettuce,
06:27 soft and juicy tomatoes, a little bit of acidity,
06:31 a little bit of fat.
06:32 All that comes together to make that perfect bite.
06:35 As long as you follow this format,
06:37 no matter what ingredients you choose,
06:39 you can make a perfect sandwich.
06:40 (whooshing)