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Preparing Sandwiches
The preparation of sandwiches requires great deal of hand works. Whether you are making sandwiches in quantity or by order, your goal is to make the production as efficient and quick as possible.
Tips:
1. Prepare Ingredients – prepare everything ahead of time, so nothing is left to do but assembles the ingredient. It includes, mixing fillings, preparation of spreads, slicing bread, meats, vegetable and cheese, separating lettuce, preparing garnishes and other ingredients.
2. Arrange Ingredients for maximum efficiency- to reduce your movement to a maximum, everything you need should be within easy reach.
Needed Tools/Equipment:
1. Storage equipment for ingredients includes refrigeration equipment for cold ingredients and a steam table for hot ingredients.
2. Hand tools included spreading, spatulas, cutting board and knives, including a serrated knife and a sharp chef’s knife for cutting the finished sandwich. Also a slicer is necessary.
3. Portion control equipment includes scoops for fillings and a portion scale for other ingredients.
4. Cooking equipment includes griddle, grills, broilers and deep fryers, microwave ovens are good for cooking.
To maintain the good quality of sandwich do any of the following:
1. Wrap separately in plastic, waxed paper or sandwich bags.
2. Place in storage pans, cover tightly with plastic wrap and cover with clean damp towels. The towels must not touch the sandwiches, their purpose is to provide a moisture barrier to help prevent drying.
3. Refrigerate immediately and hold until served.
Portion and Control Sandwiches and its Ingredients
Portion Control is necessary to proportionate the weight, scoop and slice of food items, like ham and roasted beef. Other ingredients can be portion control, by slicing the meat thinly and correctly. You will need a good meat slicer and a scale to weigh your meat.
For sandwich fillings you can use scoops, make sure it does not exceed the scoop edges, the scoop is made so you can proportionate amount of food fills the scoop, no more or no less.
Sliced items are portioned by count and by weight. If portioning is by count, take care to slice to the proper thickness. If done by weight, each portion can be placed on squares of waxed paper or stacked in a container.
Creative sandwich preparation
Sandwiches should be attractively served on plates for individual serving or on platters for multiple serving. The plate or platters can be decorated with suitable ingredients to enhance the overall presentation.
Attractive presentation makes a garnish tray more appealing so you should learn the techniques for creating a balanced, colorful and appetizing buffet arrangement. Garnishes that complement sandwiches such as a variety of olives, peppers and pickles add color and texture to the tray. Arranging a bed of greens offers a festive and inviting cold tray presentation for any kind of event.
- Spread leaf lettuce on a tray, decorate the tray edges with the top curly part of the leaves the base of the leaves point toward the center of the tray. This creates a decorative bed for the sandwiches and garnishes.
- Spear the center of each sandwiches with a long toothpick if the sandwiches are layered, such as club sandwiches or slices of submarine sandwiches. The pick keeps the sandwich together on the tray and makes them neater for guests to select, so the sandwich won’t fall apart when someone picks it up.
- Arrange the sandwiches by the filling, with the contents exposed to make sandwich selection more obvious.
- Sandwich quarters should be arranged with cut edge of the sandwich pointing up at the viewer.
- Arrange finger sandwiches in a spiral, or setting up the sandwiches in rows in the tray, with a row of garnishes between each row of sandwiches.
- Place vegetarian sandwiches on a separate tray from sandwich made with meat products.
- Handle food picks carefully. Remove food picks before giving sandwiches to children or impaired adult.
- Plate pinwheel sandwiches in a circular design on a platter with the pin wheel filling facing upward to show off the colors of the ingredients.
Proper storage for sandwiches
Storing sandwiches is one of the most important activities after preparation wherein they are to be kept properly to avoid spoilage. The most important principles for sandwich safety are keeping temperatures cool and avoiding cross contamination. Remember the basic formula 4-40-140 which means perishable foods should spend no more than 4hours at a temperature between 40 and 140°F. By the end of 4 hours bacteria may have multiplied to unsafe levels, so food that has sat out at room temperature for two hours and then been returned to the refrigerator has only another two hours of room temperature shelf life left unless it has been cooked again.
- Some sandwich ingredients and fillings should be cooked, covered in a separate airtight containers, refrigerated until ready to use.
- Keep bread tightly wrapped and in moisture proof wrapping. This stops it from drying and guards against picking up odors. It should be away from ovens and hot equipment.
- If bread must be kept more than one day, it may be frozen thaw, without unwrapping.
- Wrap sandwiches with wax paper, paper napkins plastic wraps or aluminum foil to keep them in good condition.
- To keep a number of unwrapped sandwiches just place a damp towel in a shallow pan and cover with wax paper. Arrange layers of sandwiches with wax paper between each layer. Put wax paper over the sandwiches and cover it with a damp towel. Keep the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.
- Refrigerate sandwiches for as long as possible. If there will be a time between making and serving cover each tray with wax paper or cling wrap to prevent the sandwiches from drying out.
- All sandwiches should be stored at recommended chill temperatures 0.5°C, soon after packing
- Packing must be clearly labeled with the product description, use by date and storage requirement.
Storing Techniques
1. Wrapping – to draw, fold in order to cover
2. Packaging Material – used package sandwich
3. Cold Storage – the process of preserving perishable food on a large scale by means of refrigeration
4. Chilling – to refrigerate or to reduce the temperature of food
5. Freezing – application of low temperature that changes the state of water in the food from liquid to solid ice.
6. Refrigeration – to keep cold or cool.
Source: Learners Module Grade 9 - Cookery
