Ham and Cheese Grinder Strata

Let’s assume you are making a grinder/sub/hoagie with ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion (any mustard and mayo are optional and will be applied directly to the roll).

I’m thinking the strata from bottom to top should go:

ham
cheese
lettuce
onion
tomato

Agreed?
Disagree?
What is the proper order and why?

Sounds right, except I know not what this tomato you speak of is. You might switch the top two and it doesn’t matter. And if you added more stuff, it would be somewhere on the top but not below lettuce, which is like a condiment “bowl.”

If you’re making it with sliced bread, I don’t consider this to have a “top” side so I’d split the ingredients between both slices without caring too much.

And from your title I thought you were making sausage.

So, you’re saying the ham on bottom and tomato on top? That’s what you said, but I can’t help but picture it in the reverse order because of the way the words are on the screen. Either way, lettuce in the middle seems wrong to me. For me, top to bottom (reflected in a visually congruent manner):

Onion
Ham
Cheese
Tomato
Lettuce

Why? I have no idea. Some things just are.

Yeah I should have done it visually top to bottom.
I’m not sure why but for me cheese has to be on top of the ham.
Other than that I can sort of see the lettuce and tomato on the bottom but again I just feel like they should be on top.

I’d go with (bottom to top):
ham
cheese
onion
tomato
lettuce

The ham and cheese are naturals, and the tomato/lettuce will offset any bitterness in the onion, just like in a salad. The lettuce for that initial crunch when you bite in.

You make a pretty good argument and it probably explains why I separate the onion and place it on top. If I’m putting onion on my sandwich, I specifically want the onion bitterness. At least we can agree that no matter what, lettuce goes next to bread.

I will admit that cheese under meat is probably abnormal and I have no idea why I prefer it for cold sandwiches. I also sometimes go with lettuce below the meat/cheese and tomato on top, but if onions are in play, they are always on the top with lettuce and tomato on bottom. Onions and tomatoes may only co-mingle on top of a cheeseburger, where lettuce remains on bottom. Again, I have no idea why.

Despite your worthy argument, I think if such a thing exists, the “industry standard” of sub construction is (top to bottom, please ;)):

Cheese
Ham
Onion
Tomato
Lettuce

In the end, if someone else is making sandwiches, I don’t much give a shit. But I would be a bit perplexed by middle dwelling lettuce.

Going to move this to Cafe Society.

Mayo goes on the top bun, keeps thr

Mayo goes on the top bun, keeps the lettuce in place. Mustard between the Ham and cheese
On a totally unrelated topic , tapatalk sucks.

The meat need not be at the very bottom of a sandwich. Consider (bottom to top):

Onion
Ham
Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Mayo

I like having the tomato and mayo adjacent, as well as having the ham and cheese adjacent. Mustard can either go at the bottom with the onion or at the top if mayo isn’t used. If sliced pickles are used, they go between the onion and the ham.

  1. Roughly chop all of the ingredients
  2. Bind together in a bowl with your choice of mayo/mustard/whatever wet stuff your prefer
  3. Stuff roll
  4. Put in rucksack safe in the knowledge that this will hold everything together while it’s in there, and also while you’re eating it with one hand up the side of a mountain

I see nothing wrong with the order. The ham–or any other type of meat–is the most important component so it belongs on the bottom. The cheese is next in importance followed by the veggies (lettuce, tomato, etc.). I’d leave off the onion but that’s a matter of personal preference.

As for condiments, I’d go with one of several varieties of mustard (depending upon the type of meat) and absolutely no mayo (I’m allergic). I know it’s proper to spread it on the roll but I’m weird and sometimes like to apply it to the meat.

During the Summer while in H.S. I worked at a pizza/grinder place. The order we used was (top to bottom) cheese, lettuce, onion, peppers, tomato, meat. The reason had to do with the way the foods grip each other so the items would not fall out when the customer took a bite.

Surely once you have graduated, and have an actual job, lettuce is merely a distasteful memory. I can understand using it to bulk up a sandwich because it’s all you can afford but it is just water in a solid form that isn’t ice cubes. It is mere filler, dross, a waste of valuable sandwich space. Or can’t you buy far, far better greens in the US - kale, rocket(arugula), spinach, radicchio etc.

As a matter of principle I don’t even have lettuce on my sub at Subway. It is the sandwich filling that isn’t a filling.

Although I must admit RobDog has nailed my egg salad sandwich process, if you add plenty of chili.

Is the onion whole slices, or relishy pieces? Pieces go on top. Slices go immediately on top of the meat.

Salad goes next to mayo (on bread), ham and cheese next to mustard (or butter, as in a roast beef). On a hot sandwich, cheese is next to mayo. Other than that, I don’t really care.

I’m generally fine with the order, but for me, onion goes on top of tomatoes.

Are we making a sub, or a hoagie? It makes a difference. If I’m making a sandwich, it’s going to be a hoagie, which means that the cheese has to be on the bottom (well, on top of the condiments, but below the meat) because if you put the cheese on top of the meat, it’s going to fall off the top of the sandwich. Likewise, if you have both flat meat and bulky meat (like, say, salami and ham), the flat meat has to be underneath the bulky meat. If you have bread on top of the sandwich, though, this isn’t a consideration.

I agree with the OP completely!
Except, I usually put a layer of meat, then cheese, then another layer of meat. If I’m using a lot of meat, there might be several layers of cheese and 3 or more layers of meat. Then the onion. Restaurants tend to put onion on top because it looks better in pictures, but this is wrong. Onion goes on top of the cheese layer so that it can sink into the melted cheese. Then your lettuce, which goes on only after the sandwich has been heated and has started to cool slightly. Next, the tomato. It goes in the garbage can. Finally some hot sauce, which you neglected to mention, but not everyone likes it.

Of course if someone else makes it, I’ll just scrape off the tomato and mayo and just eat it whatever way it was made.