i.e., I love a good Reuben, but a Reuben has all that sauce and stuff that kinda overwhelms the meat. The mean could be the very best…or maybe not so good…and it would hard to tell the difference.
What’s a really good Deli Sandwich that accentuates how good the meat is?
Would it be one without any toppings? Plain white bread…and meat? Or is there a suite of toppings that can help blend well with good meat, to emphasize its quality?
A place with excellent meat usually prepares it in-house, and can serve it to best effect very simply - for example the famous smoked meat sandwich served on rye bread with a dab of mustard at Schwartz’s in Montreal.
Light rye bread…a little sweet butter…thinly sliced corned beef and/or pastrami, piled high…and a tiny bit of coarse mustard. Served with garlic pickle spears and a tall, cold beer, preferably Carlsberg or Stella Artois.
If you want to embellish this, add some thin slices of Swiss cheese, tomato with a sprinkle of salt, and some raw white onion.
With a good white bread (freshly baked and hand cut), pile on thinly sliced roast beef, some sharp cheddar cheese, and a dab of Hellman’s mayonnaise.
With dark rye, sweet butter, German and/or Hungarian salami, and maybe some Havarti or Jack cheese (hot peppers optional).
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Pastrami, corned beef, or Montreal smoked meat. They only require a decent rye bread and little else–maybe a dab of mustard or horseradish. Those sandwiches are all about the meat. Oh, pulled pork, too. ETA: whoops, you said deli sandwich. A good roast beef would also qualify.
Really, really, really good hot rare roast beef on a bun with salt and pepper. It’s hard to find roast beef that good so for a single meat I’d go with corned beef or pastrami. Roast pork is very good also and a treat because it’s not found that much around here.
Not Deli, but a pulled pork sandwich lives or dies by the meat. A sweet commercial barbecue sauce can cover a lot of sins but not all. I use a hot sauce only and a bad pulled pork is painfully obvious.
Strictly deli, a roast beef sandwich seems the one I always savor the most.
Roast beef on rye with Russian.
I’ve had some amazing corned beef sandwiches that were nothing but rye, corned beef, and a bit of horseradish.
Roast beef on white bread, with hot English mustard and a couple of slices of tomato.
Thank you all! Seems like a little “minimalism” is in order.
(My usual deli approach is “everything.” Just slather on the toppings: onions, peppers, jalapenos, pickles, etc. The works! But at that point, the meat could be cardboard, and it’d be hard to know! A friend wants to take me to a deli that specializes in the very finest meats, and that was what prompted me to ask. I’ll follow what seems to be the consensus here – Roast Beef with a bit of mustard.)
(Now my mouth is all a-watering!)
I loves me a good Italian sub or New Orleans muffuletta, but the meat always comes first! :o
Personally, if I’m going to a deli respected for its meats, I’d go for something like corned beef, pastrami or the like. Not a chef, but roast beef seems less challenging to prepare well.
I’d say Chicago-Italian style beef sandwich.
I made this last week, and it was wonderful. Long time in the slow cooker, though.
I made a batch of pork in parallel with the beef. It’s now sitting in the freezer, waiting to be eaten… :o
Big stack of pastrami, caraway rye, Belgian mustard, big pickle on the side. Deli nirvana.
I came up with a different combo the other day. Dark rye, a THICK spread of cream cheese, THICK tomato slices and a pile of roast beef. Very, very good.
That goes outside of what I think of as a deli sandwich, but if we’re counting it, I’d nominate a Philadelphia roast pork sandwich as well.
I saw this and I immediately knew the “correct” answer. A peppered beef sandwich… no, not peppered pastrami. It may be a local thing, but at least someone else agrees with me. I prefer an onion roll but this is the same place I get mine from.
Interesting point… I love both corned beef and pastrami… What other ingredients? As generally in this thread, something minimal, like white bread, mustard, a little salt and pepper, maybe tomato?
Again, my munching history is usually “pile on everything you’ve got, and I’ll make a huge mess while I eat it.” But the theme of this thread seems to be “Less is more.”
