Is it a known technique to serve hot crispy-crust sandwiches on edge?

Question

So, I'm not a chef and there are few foods I'm good at cooking. Grilled sandwiches, however, I would say are one of these few. Of course, for such sandwiches, with grilled or toasted bread, the crispness of the bread from toasting or grilling is a major component of the food experience. However, I have found that serving a sandwich the standard way, with on bread slice down, often results in a severe reduction in crispness, especially if the sandwich contains meat or other juicy items. Even if the sandwich insides are not so juicy, like for a grilled cheese, the release of water vapor due to the fact that the sandwich is hot, and having it trapped there between the sandwich and the plate, is enough to completely nullify the crispness of that piece of bread.

My personal solution to this is to cut the sandwich, typically diagonally, and plate it with the cut side down, so as to allow the release of water vapor to the air, and to mitigate juices going straight to the bread. I have found this to work quite well, as long as the sandwich is one that basically holds itself together decently well. (a toothpick can help.)

My question is whether this is a known plating technique for sandwiches, where the purpose of such plating is to maintain bread texture properties.

Answer 1

I think this is a perfectly legitimate question. Flat plating of a grilled sandwich will almost always result in the bottom piece of bread being steamed by the time it is eaten. Grilling with thicker or denser bread somewhat alleviates the problem, as well as grilling with a roll sliced and grilled on the cut side.

As for presentation, your method is definitely not unheard of. The comment about the Club Sandwich is point on. You might also consider serving your sandwich with one half of the sandwich laying against some chips or veggie slices (carrot or celery sticks). That would keep the steam from developing under the sandwich. Then place the second half on the plate, barely overlapping the first. Grilled sandwiches are just one of those things that don't hold too long for service.

Answer 2

A Google image search for "grilled cheese sandwich" shows the traditional bread-on-plate plating is far and away the most common. In some cases, one of the halves is leaning on another (presumably salvaging the crispiness of that half somewhat).

However, I've definitely been served vertically plated hot sandwiches. You sort of need to find the sweet spot between "nice restaurant that thinks carefully about presentation and food quality" and "casual enough restaurant that it sells a grilled cheese sandwich."

The biggest challenge to vertical plating is that it's more difficult to preserve the appearance between kitchen and table, since the sandwich is less stable when standing on end and therefore falls over more easily. I assume that's one of the main reasons it isn't more widely used. Leaning the halves against one another, or even quartering the sandwich (the pieces are smaller and more stable), help alleviate that instability. I'd imagine clever use of toothpicks could help even more.

Answer 3

If the whole problem is the bottom getting soggy, you can try several things.

• consider keeping the sandwich on a cake cooling grille, or one of the smaller pot cooling grilles, even serving it on them on informal occasions.
• Alternatively, put the sandwich on a napkin and not directly on porcelain, to minimize condensation and have some of the moisture seep into the paper instead of the sandwich. But this can backfire if the paper is so thin and fluffy that it glues itself onto the sandwich, so choose the napkin carefully.
• serve the sandwich on a non-oiled wooden board, it will reduce (but not remove) condensation. Note that if it's a cutting board, the steam will leach food odors, especially stale onion, into the sandwich, so don't use that. If you have a coaster made of flat wooden beads, use one of them on a plate.
• if you are serving the sandwich with something on the side, prop it there, either on a slant or even flat with enough support. What you use and how you arrange it depends on the complete ingredients of your meal.

If keeping it vertical works for you, you can surely go on doing it, the food police won't come to arrest you :) But like other posters, I'd be afraid of sliding, it probably doesn't go well with any sandwich.