Simple Rules for Better Sandwiches | Techniquely with Lan Lam

There was a time when I didn't make sandwiches because, well, they just weren't very good. It took years before I figured out why. I didn't understand that there's more to sandwiches than putting a couple things between two slices of bread. So in this video, rather than teaching you how to make one or two sandwiches I like, I'll give you the concepts you can use to improve the sandwiches you're already making. Obviously there are all sorts of sandwiches out there. Knife and fork sandwiches like croque monsieur. Sandwiches usually left to the pros like the These aren't the ones I want to focus on today. I want to look at the simpler ones where there's a primary ingredient like a deli meat or egg salad and it's slipped between two slices of bread. When I'm making this style of sandwich, there are three concepts I consider. First, the treatment of the bread. Second, contrasting flavors and textures. And third, the assembly. Let's take a look at Andrew Janjagin's Pan Bagnat to see how these concepts take a tuna sandwich to the next level. He starts by removing the interior from the bottom half of a baguette before toasting it and brushing it with a layer of extra virgin olive oil. After that, he lays down a layer of chopped salad made with niçoise olives, red onions, capers, anchovies, Dijon mustard, and herbs. On top of that salad, there's some really nice oil-packed tuna. After that, we shingle on drained tomato slices. On top of the tomatoes are slices of hard-cooked egg. Then the rest of that olive salad goes right on top before it gets capped with the rest of the bread. Finally, it gets wrapped and pressed for at least an hour. I've pressed this sandwich for about an hour now. Let's unwrap it and give it a try. First up, isn't it nice that nothing falls out when you pick it up? There was a lot of stuff in there and that pressing really helped, but enough talk. This sandwich has all of my favorite ingredients from a niçoise salad. The tuna, the egg, the capers and herbs, the olives. It's pungent. It's punchy. It's rich. There's this nice chew from the bread. It's amazing. Pain bagnate teaches us a couple things about how to handle the bread for a sandwich. Generally, you're going to want your bread to make up about a quarter of your sandwich. That's enough bread for structure and stability, but not so much that the filling gets lost or the sandwich becomes tricky to eat. If you're working with something like a bagel or a baguette, consider removing some of the interior. This gets you a less bready sandwich and it forms a trough for containing the filling. The other consideration is to toast or not to toast. It's not necessary and I often skip toasting, especially if I'm using fresh bread or sliced bread that's got seeds or whole grains. On the other hand, it adds lovely texture by drying out and browning the surface of the bread. That, in turn, lets the bread absorb moisture without falling apart. If you've got an especially stale bread, consider taking an extra couple of minutes to griddle the slices. Simply spread the thinnest layer of oil or butter on the bread and cook the slice in a skillet over medium-high heat until it's crisp and brown. Griddling does two things for bread that toasting can't. It crisps the surface really quickly, minimizing how much the bread dries out, and it adds a touch of richness. By the way, it's up to you whether you griddle one side or both sides. After you've got your bread ready to go, it's time to think about the filling. There's a lot to learn from the filling of Andrew's pain bagnate. First, it's well seasoned. Andrew uses salt and vinegar to great effect. Second, the combination of ingredients offers a lot of contrast. What do I mean by contrast? Well, when it comes to texture, we've got chewiness from the bread and tenderness from the egg. Then there's the crispness of the crust against the juiciness of the tomatoes. On the flavor front, we've got savory tuna versus pungent onions and sweet tomatoes next to the heat of the mustard. Applying these principles is easy. When you're using a raw ingredient like sliced tomatoes or avocado, help them with a sprinkle of salt or a touch of acid. Or get creative and use a splash of pickled brine or scattering of capers to season. As for contrast, start by figuring out the qualities the bread and your star ingredient bring. Then pick complementary flavors and textures. And remember, there are a number of ingredients out there that bring more than one quality. Now, this is all very general, so let's take a look at some examples. Here I have some turkey and toasted ciabatta, and that bread is going to bring a dry crunch, and the turkey is tender and lean. I've got some contrast there already, crunch and tenderness. So what I'm looking for is juiciness to counter the dry and some richness to offset the lean. Now, I could add tomato and mayo or tomato and cheese, but let's try something else. How about kimchi and avocado? The kimchi is juicy and it brings some bonus heat and acidity to punch up the flavors, and the avocado is rich and creamy. So here's my ciabatta, and this is looking like a little bit too much bread for the amount of filling I have, so I'm going to ditch a little bit of the interior. First up is the avocado. I want to flatten it out a little bit. I want to give it a little bit of salt, and I like these slices on the bottom of the sandwich. Avocado slices slip when they're shingled like this, and the holes in the ciabatta will be nice and grippy, so that looks good. And then we've got our turkey, and last up, the kimchi. Now, this kimchi, it's looking like it came from the top of the container. It's not loaded with juices. If this kimchi came from the bottom of the jar where all the juices are, I would blot it first. This is what I want in a sandwich. I want it to hold together, not fall apart, nothing's dripping out, and it tastes great. The kimchi is spicy, it's juicy, avocado's rich, that turkey flavor is still there. Great sandwich. So what about a rich filling and a soft bread? I've got egg salad here and rye, and to complement them, I need something with crunch and acidity. I like radishes for peppery crunch, and some sort of pickle would be nice. Now, you could use store-bought giardiniera. You'd probably want to chop that up first, because those pieces can be large. Pickled peppers would be nice, but I really like the sweetness that bread and butter pickles bring. I'm going to start with the radishes, and it's actually kind of nice that they're this small. The larger ones, you kind of have to bite through, or you risk kind of pulling them out. These smaller pieces are less problematic. And then we've got a nice, generous amount of egg salad. And I don't feel like I need pickle in every bite. It kind of keeps the sandwich interesting if every bite doesn't taste the same, or at least I think so. Okay, let's give this a try. So this is delicious. Egg salad is so rich that the punchiness of the pickles and radishes is really nice. It keeps it interesting. Sandwich is a little bit messy, though, but we'll address that in a little bit. Before we get to construction, here are three easy-to-make items that I like to keep around for sandwiches. Pickled avocado, Dijonnaise, and sumac onions. For pickled avocados, you'll need a relatively firm avocado. Make a brine by stirring together half a cup of distilled vinegar, half a cup of water, one tablespoon of sugar, and two teaspoons of table salt. Cut your avocado into quarter-inch thick slices and drop them in the brine for anywhere between 30 minutes to two hours. Before you use them, be sure to pat them dry. And you can keep these around for two days. The acid from that brine will keep the avocados from browning. You can make Dijonnaise by stirring together equal parts Dijon mustard and mayo. Now, you could put mustard and mayo on a sandwich, but it really does taste better if you mix them together first. The mayo softens the mustard, the mustard brightens the mayo. It's just perfect. To make sumac onions, thinly slice a small red onion. Then, toss with three tablespoons of red wine vinegar, one tablespoon of sumac, and a quarter teaspoon of table salt. These are going to rest for at least 20 minutes, and then they're good to go. I really love their bright citrusy flavor, and I use them in sandwiches with roasted and grilled poultry. You could also add minced herbs to them to bring even a little more flavor. Now that we know what's going into the sandwich, how do we put it together? When it comes to assembly, the goal is really simple. The sandwich needs to hold together as you eat. Let's look at some reasons it falls apart and strategies for avoiding these problems. One problem is the bread falls apart. Usually, that's because it's absorbed water from the filling, and you've got a couple of options to deal with this. You can toast the bread to increase its capacity to absorb water slightly, you can drain wet ingredients on paper towels to remove the surface moisture, or you can do what Andrew does for pain bagnate and waterproof your bread. Andrew demonstrated this with a sponge experiment. I've got two sandwiches here, and I'm going to brush a scant amount of oil on the surface of one of them and leave the other untreated. And these sponges dipped in this blue water, they're a juicy filling. We're going to press these sandwiches and see what happens. It's been 30 minutes. Let's ditch this wait and see the results. As you can see, if you have a super juicy sandwich and it's going to sit around for a little bit, a lot of those juices are going soak into the bottom slice of bread. By treating that bottom slice with a little bit of oil, you can prevent it from absorbing quite so much water. And the results, it's like this is so mushy and soft. And this has retained its texture, which is really lovely. And you don't have to use oil to prevent sogginess, you could use a slice of cheese or even a sphere of butter. Another common problem is that the ingredients slip out. Now here you have a couple of options as well. As I said earlier, you can remove some of the interior to create a trough for the filling. You could press your sandwich to give it more cohesion, or you can be strategic about the layers. Place grippy items like bacon, shredded lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, arugula, or potato chips between slippery items like pickles or tomatoes. Or you can just wrap that sandwich in plastic or parchment and peel that wrap away as you eat. Next time you make a sandwich, take a second to think through what's going in there. Figure out if there's a flavor or texture that you're missing and then take a close look at what you've got stashed in the fridge and pantry. I bet there's something tucked away in there that'll make your sandwich pop. And take the time to build it properly, and it won't be long before people are going to be asking for your sandwich secrets. What's the best way to cut a sandwich in half, and why is it triangles? Make your case in the comments below. If you found this video useful, consider subscribing. And for more great recipes, techniques, and tips, check out CooksIllustrated.com.