Sourdough bread is fantastic bread for sandwiches. I like virgin olive oil on sandwiches. Sausages are good as is salami. It like the pepper flavors. I like fresh ground pepper. I have come to prefer romaine lettuce or spinach with homegrown tomatoes. Of course, a simple tomato sandwich with the fresh harvest of homegrown tomatoes is perfect—with a bit of homemade mayonnaise. Julie Child’s recipe for mayonnaise works well for me. I like being able to distinguish flavors in big sandwiches.

The New Orleans oyster, crayfish, or shrimp poor boy sandwich works best with a little commercial mayonnaise, shredded iceberg lettuce, and a touch of hot sauce. I don’t know how cooks bread them. I don’t know what oil that use for frying. The oil has to be hot because the breading seals the oysters, crayfish, or shrimp. Our good cooks never saturate the French bread in these poor boys with mayonnaise or oil. That is important.

On the other hand, they do saturate French bread with gravy for roast beef poor boys. I don’t know why the difference.

Don't let anyone put down hometown cooking. New Orleans is great. New York is great, but all places have something wonderful. The best meals I ever enjoyed I had in Luray, South Carolina during the summer 1965. The town had a hundred people. I think all of them were gifted cooks.

I think butter milk would make a great dressing without the ranch mix. Just a little would enhance a sandwich.

Beau, did you say you start with a one-pound loaf? And then add all that? I'm fat, but that Hero sounds like it would feed me for a day. Wow!

bobov (imported) wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:13 pm Beau, did you say you start with a one-pound loaf? And then add all that? I'm fat, but that Hero sounds like it would feed me for a day. Wow!

A one pound loaf to begin the sandwich--that is a beginning to last a long time.

I haven't tried this, but it sounds pretty good, and I intend to make one sometime in the near future.

http://www.silverpointoysters.com/recneworleans.html

Incidentally, I do something similar to what's described in the recipe, so my submarine sandwiches made with a full size sourdough loaf, don't include as much bread as you'd expect. I make three lengthwise slices out of the loaf, then set aside the middle one, which is a little thicker than a regular slice of bread, and is the full length of the loaf, to use for toast the next morning. It's normally sliced too thick to cut to size and put in the toaster, so we put portions of it the size of a slice of bread, in the toaster oven.

I think that the deli at Vons uses full size loaves as the buns for its party subs. But the loavess they use may not be a full pound to begin with. For those unfamiliar with Vons stores, they are the chain which Safeway bought out when they closed their own stores in Southern California and Southern Nevada. So Vons is basically Safeway by another name. I presume the subs they make in Safeway's delis are also pretty good.