/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>20264310
>cubano might be the most delicious sandwich ive ever had in my life
And, I'd one-up the experience to state the "croqueta preparada" is one tier more delicious. Having crispy coated creamy ham croquettes added to the sandwich before pressing and garlic butter toasting step is perfection. You might need to be in Miami to have it done absolutely everywhere.

>>17454772
>Simply the best sandwich to set foot on this earth
too bad this picture isn't one of them. There are not panini grill marks and that isn't amazing cuban bread. Ridiculously thick mustard is wrong, as well.

>>16423029
>Is Cuban food any good? Seems kind of primitive
>pic not even Cuban food
>yellow dry rice
>dry pork without any kind of marinated onions, prolly not even a mojo marinade with sour orange, and it even looks spoiled, color is way off
>red beans? bbq beans? wtf, who made this? domininican? haitian?

Cuba was once one of the richest places in the world. 2nd sons from Spain who didn't inherit the family home, ie classy people, who were college educated, who's children went to private schools and followed all the traditions of the home country.
Meet anyone in Miami who's parents came over in the 60s and you'll understand food and traditions from cultured people who appreciate fine dining. Real Cuban food isn't able to be made in Cuba anymore, gotta go to a nice family's house for like a baby shower, or dine at an Isla Canarias, Versailles, or even LAC or Palacio de los Jugos. Pic is my favorite sandwich.

>>16256659
>I noticed a lot cooking videos using spam, most of them young people, I thought spam was something gross as a kid is it actually good?
Island types always stocked up on non-perishables for the offchance a hurricane wiped out the power grid for a couple of weeks. They also had to eventually eat the canned foods before expiration the rest of the year. Ham is really an American craft food, and it's pretty much the reason the chinese bought out Smithfield ham.
Spam is never going to be anything but congealed pureed ham product. It's not country ham, or a roasted fresh ham, not gonna come close. It's just going through a "retro" phase. It's never going to any damn good. It's a novelty that some people are just discovering it, when their grandparents stopped buying it long ago.
You know what IS delicious? Baking a ham and then doing fun things with your leftovers, like cuban croquetas with a golden browned cracker crust, and soft rich, and warm filling, oh so cozy. Cold ham salad, with your yummy pickle relish, and some nice dense tea sandwich breads, yum. Saltyass no texture Spam is not even coming close.

>>15018154
It says Serrano (not Jamon Iberico with acorn fed pigs). The fun party-ready carving station is a bit of drama, but this is really a slicing and cold cuts kind of ham, some charcuterie laid out on a platter with all the great olives and cheeses, and marinated peppers and other tapas kind of dishes.

Serrano ham for me?
It's about the Cuban sandwich called croqueta preparada.
It renders flavor into the rice, when it is layered under the broiled cheesy topping of moist Arroz Imperial.

>>14576917
>>>14576892
>>post a sammich faggot
>For me it's the cubano.
That cubano has raw cucumbers on it, not pickles, WTF and mayo??? That wasn't made in Florida.

Anyway, I'll elevate the proper cubano to the Croqueta Preparada, the superior version.

>>13698863
>Pic related, I'm making Cubanos with homemade bread tonight
Miami native here.

The bread looked very nice, light and soft, with that distinctive cracker crust of only real cuban bread (though you didn't bake it on a palmetto frond so I guess you didn't want to walk out to your yard and pick from your trees). Pork loin is fine. If you'll notice, that is _sliced_ roast pork in the posted picture.
Criticism (so you get pro next time):
Too much mustard, some restaurants don't even use it. A bit heavy on the pickles too.
Okay to shred the pork (like a pan con lechon), but kind of sad seeing you put braising liquid on it all to soak it through your perfect bread. :(
Foil is fine, but you should know cuban restaurants will have a panini press covered in foil so they don't have to clean it so hard. They brush on garlic butter (likely margarine), and that crisps up the bread even more.

One particular restaurant in Miami does the cuban differently. Sarussi Subs bastes the bread before the foil wrapped press in a type of buffalo sauce/mojo combination. It's hot sauce, butter, and Goya mojo criollo (sour orange, cumin, olive oil). People even dip their sandwiches in it.

My FAVORITE is when you take some ham croquetas and smash them in the cuban in an extra layer. So much texture! It's called the Croqueta Preparada.

>>13528089
>thiss better
A panini maker/sandwich press is just going to be more versatile for you OP. Various sizes of bread, and types of bread, from french or cuban rolls to wider sourdough or boule breads.
But, panini presses don't press and seal the edges like those hot pockets, which is part of the fun of a sandwich maker. Which to me, ehh, whatever on that. What is a disappointment on the sandwich makers that make diagonal pockets is that you need square bread (typically cheap loaf bread only, and you have to moderate the filling to a trace amount of filling because they leak into a mess. Mind you, messy cheese leaks get crunchy good.
Panini presses tend to have removable plates you can toss in the dishwasher, and, some are reversible from grill ridges to a flat plate for griddling.

>>13330585
Growing up, every year for Christmas, one Grandma gave out 30 items to all the households of aunts, uncles, cousins of whatever the "As Seen on TV" invention of the year was....and it was a bit of a joke gift, and also comfy or fun.
I remember the Sandwich maker, those diagonal pressed marks and oozing cheese and all. They were molten hot in the middle, and always leaked, though crunchy cheese was actually delicious on the edges. They were fun, but I'd much rather not have to have square cheap sandwich bread.
Grill marks on a "panini" maker was a trend I tried too, and it's okay, but what I think killed the popular sandwich press trend in the US is the end of the high carb diet. People just don't make it their way of life, bread is on the outs.
As a Miami native, the cuban sandwich, which can be made in a device like OP's pic, is the best of it all. Cuban restaurants cover the plates with foil so they don't have to stop and fix the surfaces all day. Cuban bread in itself is cracker crusted and unbrowned, and fresh soft in the inside, the perfect bread to be finished toasted.
For breakfast, with your cafe con leche, you get "cuban toast" which is lightly buttered (or garlic buttered) bread to dip in your coffee.
For lunch, snacks or dinner, your sandwich, whether stuffed with roast pork, cracklins, and lime-marinated onions, or the famous croquetta preparada, which is the cuban roast pork, serrano ham, swiss, mustard pickle, and smushed crackercrumbed ham croquetas in the bread? Heaven. Sandwich is brushed with garlic butter, and smashed between the plates, and cooked through til cheese is melty and browned in edges and bread is crisp.