Sandwich fillers: Top eight sliced beef options
CREATE your own luxury deli sandwich by using top-quality ingredients that will provide nourishment for hours.
Putting a good sandwich together is the art of cleverly assembling elements that balance in taste and texture, as well as nutrition. Start with good bread — brown or white, wholemeal, yeast or sourdough instead of bland sliced pan.
So that’s good fibre sorted. Next, get some lettuce, rocket and cabbage for greens, some cheese for creaminess, then think about a meaty filling.
There is plenty of ham around, but beef is an excellent alternative. With lots of protein and a satisfying chew, it’s a good buy. It can be a simple roast beef (of course leftovers are ideal), but for this survey, we also looked at spiced beef (fashionable now as tapas with drinks, not just at traditional Christmas time) and pastrami, a salted beef with roots in Armenia and Romania which migrated to America. Pastrami can be spiced too, often steamed with aromatic cumin and fenugreek.
Cork spiced beef leans towards the warmer spicing of cinnamon and clove. The cut tends to vary too, with spiced beef often sliced from the lean eye of the round. Pastrami varies from brisket to round, with the salting and drying echoing the traditional way of preserving meats before the advent of refrigeration.
Brisket of beef is cooked with black pepper and smoked in this pack of 130g (€2.59). Thinly sliced, the result is nicely peppery and interesting, with a good texture. The favourite of the better value samples. Addition of beetroot slaw, gherkins, Cooleeney or other Irish equivalents of Brie or Camembert, with sourdough bread, would make a perfect, luxurious sandwich at a reasonable price.
9.25
In this 95g pack (€5.20) British silverside beef is dry cured with salt and bay leaves and tasters immediately recognised the deliciously soft herbal flavours. Very thinly sliced, it is mildly salted. The rare meat texture felt silky and luxurious and appealed to all tasters. Delicious for canapés as well as for sandwiches with rocket and lettuce leaves. Ideal to pack for a light picnic, but marks docked for high price.
8.25
This 130g pack (€2.49) is terrific value. Beef coated in salt and black pepper results in a full- flavoured, bright, lively pepperiness which lingers with some saltiness that is not harsh nor overdone. The robust, meaty texture pleased tasters. For substantial sandwiches with thinly sliced Hegarty’s cheddar, grated celeriac in mayo, or raw beetroot drizzled with balsamic.
8.75
Pastrami and spiced beef (same price) are two interesting products from this innovative butcher. Both have a meaty texture, the pastrami quite mild in its flavouring, the spiced beef mildly spiced with a deep flavour throughout. Pair with a full flavoured cheese such as mature Durrus or Ardrahan. Sliced fresh from joints in On the Pig’s Back, English Market, Cork, the meats are available nationwide. See jackmccarthy.ie.
8.5
Sliced in-house, ask for the exact number of slices for sandwiches to avoid waste. Tasters were impressed by the thinly sliced, tasty roast beef which had a soft texture. They equally liked the strong peppery, well balanced flavour of the pastrami. A good buy. Try both with mayo, lettuce, Irish buffalo mozzarella, rocket and gherkins. Add mustard or horseradish to the mayo for the roast beef.
8.25
Unsalted roast beef makes this a good buy for children’s lunches. Adults can add salt, a touch of horseradish or mustard to their own sandwiches to enhance flavour. Top with sliced red onion, relish, lettuce and rocket. Mix freshly grated turmeric into mayo for a warm spicing. The texture is nicely meaty and substantial for a muscular sandwich. Buy as many slices from joint as needed. They will vacuum pack for picnics. Great value. At Cork’s English Market.
8.25
This 100g pack (€3) appealed to one of our tasters who liked the coriander and declared it ‘fragrant’. There was plenty of mild pepper too. Slightly moist, tasters thought it would be unlikely to dry out in a sandwich kept for a few hours. Try with a slaw of pickled beetroot with creamy goats cheese.
8.25
This 100g pack (€4) tasted the saltiest of the selection, which the panel found too much. Mixed spices, cinnamon, clove and black pepper form the dry coating on each of five slices. After the blind tasting, tasters who know and love the product as a hot joint at Christmas, said they found the dryness of the coating less enjoyable in sandwiches. Try with Irish farmhouse semi-soft cheeses in a toasted sandwich. From Cork’s English Market.
7.75
