![]() Not corn snacks that, when sandwiched between two slices of bread, produce what feels like a mouthful of cotton wool. But you need a crisp that offers a definitive crunch and clear textural contrast here. That settled, surely we can all agree that “fluffy” crisps – Monster Munch, Skips, spicy Nik Naks, Quavers, Chipsticks, generic cheesy balls – have no role to play in a crisp sandwich? The flavour intensity of Wotsits makes them tempting, and Frazzles taste more like bacon than bacon. Instead, HTE takes the following highly unscientific position: is it in the crisp aisle in the supermarket? Then it is a crisp. ![]() It will not indulge Pringles pedants, who refuse to acknowledge a product consisting of rice flour and wheat starch mixed into a dehydrated potato base. HTE refuses to get into an argument about whether extruded corn snacks are crisps or not. In health terms, this is the dictionary definition of a false economy. For instance, there are multiple things wrong with this Sainsbury’s recipe (onion, tomato, gherkins, salad leaves!), but perhaps the worst is its use of unsalted butter. The crisp sandwich is an all-in, sod-the-consequences commitment. Embrace that reality or this endeavour will have been a comparative waste of time. Your arterial health is an accident waiting to happen. Its salt levels will be unacceptable to all medical professionals. The idea that on a crisp butty of all things, you would deny yourself butter on health grounds and instead subject yourself to one of the light ’n’ spreadable, sterol-and-stanol, I-never-believed-it-wasn’t-butter-vegetable-oil options is baffling. But what is the pursuit of perfection if not the painstaking accumulation of such gains?īutter … accept no substitute. Yes, its rich creaminess is a marginal gain in this context. But if you do have a pound or three spare, HTE is unbending in its view that butter is one of the best investments in the supermarket chiller cabinet. It oils the wheels of mastication without positively boosting flavour. ![]() Margarine does a job, particularly on a crisp sandwich. Ultimately, you will slather your slice with what you can afford. Like many of the best things in life, a crisp sandwich needs lubrication. In that regard, a baguette is the least-practical crisp sandwich bread. You will scatter crisp shrapnel everywhere. If using a less politically compromised cob, bap or roll, avoid those with firm crusts that require you to tear at them. For that, you need relatively dense squishy bread, such as Jackson’s white bloomer or – if you can stomach the company’s £25,000 donation to the Conservative party in 2010 – perhaps the world’s best crisp-sandwich bread, Warburtons toastie loaf. Ideally, you want to forcibly squash the top layer of your sandwich down as you make it, to mould it around the crisps, so it neatly retains them as you eat. These fragile breads fall apart at the first flash of a butter knife. Many are as light and airy as packing foam, with none of its durability. Not all supermarket loaves are created equal, however. It should be a neutral delivery vehicle for your chosen crisp. Instead, you need a mass-produced white sliced loaf that, in its milky blandness, will offer more cushioning texture than flavour. Not only will their flavour jar horribly with the crisps, but the pious presence of those self-righteous seeds and grains will cast an anxious pall over proceedings, as if the bread is judging your filling and finding it wantonly gluttonous. The crisp sandwich is meant to be an uninhibited pig-out, which will be ruined by using earnest wholemeal or ostensibly healthy seeded breads. Naturally, HTE is fully in favour of real bread – in the right circumstances. Therefore, let us settle once and for all on the crisp sandwich’s ultimate form. ![]() But who has time for that? At How to Eat – the series exploring how best to consume Britain’s favourite foods – there is no guilt, only pleasure. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |