Jean A.'s Fluffer-Nutter and Peanut Butter Sandwich

Kevin Danks' Peanut Butter and M*rm*te Sandwich

Jim Hardy's Peanut Butter Sammich

Hank Burchard's TBSW* and TS-BSW**

Donni Call's Banana Protest

Jim Klein's Deep Fried Addition to the TBSW*

Rowen's Spam Sandwich

Hank Burchard's Spam Sandwich

MASTER CHEF

A Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Built to Last
Recipe: Spiced-Up Grilled Cheese Sandwich 

NEW YORK -- You can think about sandwiches in two directions: from the inside out or from the outside in. You can decide on the filling and then choose the bread, or if you're like me, you can choose the bread and then decide what to put between the slices.

Whether you're going from bread to filling or filling to bread, to build a perfect sandwich you have to consider taste and texture. The basic rules are simple. For texture, pair soft breads with soft fillings (so the egg salad doesn't go flying out of the toast) and sturdy breads with firmer fillings (think roast beef or turkey), so you get a "chew" of equal density from the outside in. 

When you want to bend the rules, you can put a firm filling on a softer bread. Similarly, big-flavored breads go best with fillings that can stand up to them. 

My favorite grilled cheese sandwich starts with country sourdough bread (a good toasting bread) spread with a zesty mixture of chipotle peppers and tomato paste. From the bottom up, it has two slices of sharp New York State Cheddar, red onions, fresh cilantro, a layer of ripe tomatoes, two more slices of cheese, and then the capstone, another slice of bread spread with the chipotle paste. 

You might want to use a different cheese, change the cilantro to parsley, omit the onions or replace chili sauce with mayonnaise. You can play around with the inner elements, so long as you don't change the order in which they are layered. Order is all when you grill this sandwich, as you'll see. 

At the bakeries, we use a press, which packs the sandwich down, toasts the bread, warms the innards and, because the Cheddar is positioned next to the bread, melts the cheese. 

At home, you can put the sandwich in a saute pan and weight it with a small pot. Either way, you'll discover that the cheese melts on both sides and, even better, melts around the tomatoes, cilantro and onions, forming a cocoon that keeps these delicate ingredients juicy, but away from the bread. There's no sog, ever. 

This recipe makes two sandwiches, but it can be multiplied indefinitely. You can even assemble and refrigerate the sandwiches up to eight hours ahead. Regardless of when you make them or how many, you will always have the same results: the construction guarantees that the last bite will look and taste exactly as good as the first. 

SPICED-UP GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH

Time: 15 minutes

1 6-ounce can tomato paste 
2 canned chipotle peppers 
1 tablespoon adobo sauce (the sauce in which the peppers are canned) 
1 tablespoon molasses 
4 large slices sourdough bread, cut 3/4 inch thick 
4 ounces New York State Cheddar cheese, cut into 8 thin slices 
4 thin slices red onion, in rings 
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro. 
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick. 

1. In a blender or small food processor, combine tomato paste, chipotle peppers, adobo and molasses. Puree until smooth. 

2. Taste chipotle pepper spread to determine the spiciness, then spread one side of each slice of bread with desired amount. Refrigerate the extra sauce. 

3. On each of 2 slices of bread, place 2 slices cheese. Top with onion rings, then sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Add tomato slices, and top with remaining cheese. Put slices of bread, pepper sides down, over sandwiches. 

4. If using a sandwich grill, follow the instructions. Otherwise, place a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat for 30 seconds. Put sandwiches in pan, and weight with a clean heavy pot. When bread has begun to toast and brown and cheese is melting, in 1 to 2 minutes, flip sandwiches over and toast other sides. 

Yield: 2 sandwiches.

Massachusetts''s contribution to Great American Sandwiches is the Fluffer-Nutter. 

I was introduced to it by the little boy next door sometime in the forties. He solemnly assured me that Marshmallow Fluff was good for you because it had so many egg whites in it. 

Marshmallow Fluff, made by the native Durkee-Mower company, and maybe not available outside of New England, bears no resemblance to Kraft's Marshmallow Creme, which one must never use as a substitute. 

Simply load up Wonder Bread ( or, if it makes you feel more virtuous, Pepperidge Farm Original White ) with peanut butter and then with Marshmallow Fluff. 

In a meeting of cultures (perhaps that should be a collision of cultures....) I take credit for inventing the peanut butter and Marmite sandwich.

Peanut butter is the all-purpose food. Best way to eat:

split and toast a Thomas's english muffin. (Don't use knife - need the nooks and crannies)

Slather with peanut butter.

Slap together in sandwich: eat.

The heat from the toasted english muffin will MELT the peanut butter so it runs out of the sides of the sammich when you take a bite, and make little puddles of peanut butter on your plate (MUST have plate for this one).

Challenge is to consume every bit of peanut butter, by using the sammich or your fingers to scrape it off the plate. Good messy fun.

TBSW* consists of two slices of Wonder Bread slathered with mayonnaise (my deeper-South cousins use Merkle Whip salad dressing). On this you pile slices of warm-from-the-vine tomatoes from plants that have been deeply mulched and watered judiciously, that is to say parsimoniously, so that they have a good acid bite to them. Salt heavily and pepper grossly. Eat immediately, before the tomato juice entirely dissolves the bread.
This is what Lawrence Sanders used to describe as an "over-the-sink" sandwich, because if you make it right, stuff will run down your chin and, if you're not bent over the sink, onto your shirt.

TS-BSW** starts out like TBSW, but instead of tomatoes stack on thick slices of not-quite-ripe bananas and omit the pepper. This sandwich may be eaten at leisure, while sitting. Another of its virtues is that the ingredients are available year-round.

*TBSW -- The Best Sandwich in the World
**TS-BSW -- The Second-Best Sandwich in the World

BUT banana sandwiches are made with soft butter - not mynez for goodness' sake! - and sugar. Peanut butter may be substituted for butter. 

And what about peanut butter-and-bacon sandwiches?

Insert a deep fried, soft-shell crab. 

Rather, I had a seasoned flour mixture in mind for our little crablettes; just something to dry the exterior, add flavor, and crisp up the legs. Can be done in a saute pan, but I prefer the quick drop into hot grease. 

Yummmm... 

Washed down with either beer or wine. A flexible dish.

First you take a slice of Maligned Wonder Bread. Open a can of Spam (yes, SPAM), cut it into slices about 3/8" thick and cover the bread with enough slices.

Then open a can of Pork n' Beans, and spoon some on top of the Spam. Then cover this with another slice of MWB. For fine-dining serve with a glass of milk. Otherwise just use the carton.

This is probably an "over-the-sink" sandwich, too, depending on how many slices and how much spooning you did.

First you dice the Spam slices and FRY 'em (in bear grease if you're blessed with it, otherwise in bacon grease or butter).

Then you pour the can of pork and beans over it, and lashings of pepper sauce (Cholula if you're blessed with it, Tabasco otherwise, Texas Pete never), and cook until you're tired of waiting. Shovel it onto a plate.

NOW the Maligned WonderBread comes in. Slather a slab of it with butter and roll it up to use as a pusher for spooning (yes) up the mess. When the pushing end of the roll gets too soggy and soft, bite it off.

If you have company, use glasses for the milk. Otherwise, from the carton.