Rank these sandwiches

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Which is your favorite?

  • The Reuben

    Votes: 32 47.8%

  • Grilled Cheese

    Votes: 16 23.9%

  • BLT

    Votes: 12 17.9%

  • PB&J

    Votes: 7 10.4%
  • Total voters
    67
MichaelC

MichaelC

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  • #1
    Inspired by this episode of After Midnight (2024-), let's see how Ars ranks these sandwiches.

    If you are curious, you can watch After Midnight on CBS or on Paramount+ without ads.

    The Reuben
    Grilled Cheese
    BLT
    PB&J

    Personally, I think this is a tough call.

    I think I would rank them

    BLT
    Reuben
    Grilled Cheese
    PB&J

    Collectively, the poll is going very unscientifically and extemely inaccurately tell us which ones Ars like best.
     
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    Thorvard

    Thorvard

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  • #6
    Oof thats a tough one.

    I'm picking PB&J for a couple reasons. 1) it's hard to screw up and I almost always have the ingredients at home. 2) It's just so comforting.

    On to the others, I hate BLTs. Yup, that's right. I don't mind a tomato sandwich, or just a bacon sandwich, but combining them? Nope.

    The Reuben is fine, but I've never made one at a home, don't usually have the ingredients at home and when I've gotten them ordered it can be a hit or miss if they are good.

    Grilled cheeses are great and have lots of potential for add-ins and flavor enhancers but, again, it's something I can only eat at home. You can almost never get a good grilled cheese out in my experience. 5 Guys is decent and there is a placed next to our old house in MD that had a Lobster grilled cheese melt, which was amazing.

    My picks would probably be:

    PB&J
    Grilled Cheese
    Reuben
    BLT
     
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    Not_an_IT_guy

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  • #7
    I voted the Reuben, but honestly, it's a bit of trap. It is hard to tell where the mean for the Reuben vs the BLT stands, I know the standard deviation for a Reuben is MUCH larger. A BLT is just a BLT and pretty much always good, but while a good Reuben is sublime, I have also had many a poor Reuben that fell well below what a BLT would have delivered.
     
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    MichaelC

    MichaelC

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  • #8
    fitten said:
    Grilled Cheese / PB&J / BLT
    ...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    (bunch more ...)
    Reuben
    Click to expand...
    shots fired!

    Thorvard said:
    On to the others, I hate BLTs. Yup, that's right. I don't mind a tomato sandwich, or just a bacon sandwich, but combining them? Nope.
    Click to expand...

    clear sign of insanity.
     
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    drogin

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  • #14
    I mean...so much of this depends on things like "what kind of peanut butter", "what kind of jelly", and "what kind of grilled cheese".

    If we are following their Platonic ideals and not customizing towards personal preference then I think it is clearly:

    Reuben
    BLT
    Grilled Cheese
    PB&J

    Following my personal modifications:

    Reuben
    Grilled Cheese (with a couple of slices of genoa salami between the cheese, and ketchup on top).
    PB&J (Skippy Super Chunk or GTFO, and strawberry preserves)
    BLT (toasted bread, home made mayo, several thin slices of tomato)
     
    mitty84

    mitty84

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  • #16
    It is a hard list because it is subjective. All around, I like a good PB&J. It tops the list overall above a standard BLT or Reuben, which are tied for #2. But if the BLT or Reuben is really something special, I'm gonna go for one of those first.

    I don't generally like Grilled Cheese so that's at the bottom. I need something to eat it with. A good tomato soup is basically required.
     
    MichaelC

    MichaelC

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  • #18
    I am honestly a little surprised at the BLT comments. I figured bacon elevated it because many people love bacon and it would be neck and neck with the Reuben.

    I love the savory and salty contrast with the sweet of the tomato and the crisp of the lettuce. Yes, the bacon can be crisp as well depending on how you like it, but they are two kinds of crispness... The lettuce is a light refreshing crispness, again providing an interesting contrast to the bacon. So for me, it's complimentary and contrasting textures and flavors.
     
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    Delor

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  • #21
    continuum said:
    I like reubens but actually I prefer straight pastrami without so much extra stuff added, so this poll is tough one for me...
    Click to expand...

    Yeah. Four times out of five, I'd take pastrami with swiss and mustard over a Reuban. When I want a reuben it's fantastic, but the sauerkraut and dressing are something I need to be specifically in the mood for.

    You can also make it a pastrami melt and get some of that grilled cheese goodness with your pastrami sandwich, but hot or cold I'll happily take it.
     
    Last edited:
    timezon3

    timezon3

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  • #22
    I'm not on the Reuben train, just because I don't like rye bread. All of you that do, good for you, but not for me.

    Grilled cheese definitely my favorite on this list. Even a basic one (white bread and american cheese) is awesome, but it has so much potential for other stuff. When I do make BLTs, I often put cheese on it anyways, and toast it, so at that point IMO, a BLTC is a grilled cheese variant anyways. There is a grilled cheese fast food place near me that is pretty good, they have a bunch of standard variations, and a rotating seasonal sandwich. It's called Toasted, and their tagline is "Get toasted". I can't find the red eye emoji in our list, so just imagine that I put that here.
     
    CrackFraggle

    CrackFraggle

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  • #23
    For me...
    1. BLT - a safe bet in an establishment I have no history with. Effectively a barometer of what to expect from a place. (and, easy to make at home)
    2. Reuben, assuming I know how they make them. If it isn't grilled, it's wrong.
    3. PB&J - No grape jelly. I rarely want one, but, it's a decent basic thing to eat.
    4. Grilled Cheese - only if I'm in the parking lot at a Dead show, or home sick and there is also tomato soup.
     
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    PhaseShifter

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  • #27
    Reuben
    .
    .
    .
    Grilled Cheese/BLT
    .
    .
    .
    .
    PBJ

    As others have said, Reubens can vary quite a bit. They're not my favorite option, but they're certainly the one that tops the options that were given.


    There's also a lot of variation in the middle.
    Different types of cheese can make or break a grilled cheese sandwich, but it's barely more effort than a PBJ for something that will be far better.
    Also it's great hangover food, and great with soup in the wintertime.

    OTOH, the BLT really depends on having fresh home-grown tomatoes and not those bland not-tomato things that are loaded onto trucks and shipped across the country to the produce departments of supermarkets everywhere. So a proper BLT is only available a few months out of the year.

    PBJ is kind of the lowest common denominator. Even if you eschew basic mass-produced grape jelly and go with homemade jelly produced by another fruit, that barely elevates it, and might even make it worse. Still, it's not the worst sandwich around--just the worst on this list.
     
    Diabolical

    Diabolical

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  • #29
    It’s a toss up for me between Grilled Cheese and PB&J.

    BLTs and Reubens have strict followings and rules.

    Grilled Cheese and PB&J allow for… experimentation.
    Have some left over steak? Put that in the Grilled Cheese when no one is looking.
    You have ONE breaded chicken tender/boneless wing / chicken boob left over? Or some left over turkey? Heat that puppy up, slice it, insert into PB&J. Instant whaaaaaaa?!?

    I like being to experiment. As basic food items instead of more complicated (and apparently controversial?) options, PB&J and Grilled Cheese can range from the most basic (even going down to toaster/microwave or folded over on piece of bread if you have to) to the extremely creative. Versatility is awesome.

    Also, PB&J, because I haven’t had one in a long time.
     
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    Hound of Cullen

    Hound of Cullen

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  • #32
    Reuben for me.

    BLT is entirely dependent on the tomatoes. If they are not garden fresh, juicy, tender, fragrant tomatoes, the BLT is sadness on white with a side of mayo.

    Grilled cheese and PB&J are both fine. I'll make a pb&j for breakfast every now and then. But I'll get a hankering for a reuben in a way that I don't for either of these.
     
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    nquinnell

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  • #33
    The Reuben - I hate sauerkraut. And Rye bread.
    Grilled Cheese - Depends on the cheese. Most often, I'll skip it, because there's no bowl of tomato soup present.
    BLT - People seem to think that the bacon must be fried into nonexistence, and that a huge hunk of lettuce and tomato must be added. I've had too much bad bacon to like these.
    PB&J - Its impossible to mess these up. All peanut butter is acceptable, and any jelly without seeds. Unless, of course, you're a psycho that cuts it in half, instead of on the diagonal as the gods intended.
     
    JimCampbell

    JimCampbell

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  • #35
    nquinnell said:
    BLT - People seem to think that the bacon must be fried into nonexistence, and that a huge hunk of lettuce and tomato must be added. I've had too much bad bacon to like these.
    Click to expand...
    In the UK, the perfect BLT has no L or T. The most plasticky white bread imaginable, either sliced or a roll and buttered, rashers of back bacon fried but not too crispy, served hot plus your sauce of choice. People have been disinherited over their preference between tomato ketchup and brown sauce* on a bacon sandwich. It’s a whole thing over here.

    *Brown sauce is basically impossible to explain to people who don’t know what it is. If you’re in that category and want to try it, be aware that HP is the king of brown sauces. Daddies is a distant second, and everything after that is inedible garbage.
     
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    Delor

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  • #37
    As a kid, I'd make peanut butter and crushed cheese Dorito sandwiches. Good eating.

    My actual sandwiches these days are mostly a variety of stuff in or adjacent to the club sandwich family, obtained from sandwich shops or pizza restaurants.

    My favorite sandwich might be a roast beef with lettuce, mayo, and provolone, but it needs to be extremely good roast beef because mediocre roast beef is blah. A high quality Cubano might come in second.
     
    MichaelC

    MichaelC

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  • #40
    rain shadow said:
    I was expecting a lot more pushback on there not being a taco option in a sandwich poll.
    Click to expand...
    I did agonize over whether to include one. I am usually against polls without a taco option. But it really is about these four sandwiches, that's it. And though it pained me, I kept the options to those sandwiches.
     
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