Toastie Recipe Development

In our travels through time and space people often ask us how we go about developing a new toastie recipe. The conversation starts with them asking if we ever get sick of eating the same toasties, to which we will respond that as far as we know, we have yet to have the same menu on for more than a week running. We have 40 toasties to choose from, and while we have still not quite been brave enough to remove the ham and cheese, the line-up will usually change with every outing.

Each of the menu options will fall into one or more categories, and each category will be represented at least once. We try to have one of the following on for every outing:
The Ham and Cheese category. Represented by ham and cheese.
The Veggie Option. Usually either goat’s cheese or the 4 cheese supreme, as our other veggie options fall into the category…
The Sub-Premium. Interesting toasties that give us a real chance to experiment. The Reuben, Mushroom Rarebit, the Chorizo toastie and many others.
The Premium. Our crab toastie, the water buffalo and the salmon are ones we have to charge, well, a premium for. The same slot will also often be occupied by…
The Premium Premium (naming convention born out of habit rather than sense). The Manwich and the Old MacDonald are our premium premiums. Leaving one spot left for…
The Sweet Toastie. Banoffee, rocky road and our increasing selection of seasonal desserts: rhubarb & custard, raspberry & orange curd and something I want to do with blackberries.

After a summer with development on the back burner we have begun to experiment once more, trying to find replacements for ones that we have grown bored of and continuing the eternal quest for another veggie toastie that isn’t better for the addition of bacon.

The process usually starts with us finding an ingredient we want to use. Currently the work is on butternut squash. We then mull over various pairings that sound nice, or which Barny knows are delicious from his cheffing days, or which I just really want to try.

We then get the bits in and devise at least three different versions of the same basic toastie. This example is roast butter-nut squash. One with ricotta, wilted spinach and pine nuts, one with ricotta mixed with wilted spinach and pine nuts, and one with Cornish Yarg, wilted spinach and pine nuts.

Toasties are then reverently consumed between the two of us and we discuss problems, taste and whether or not they would be improved with the addition of bacon. Barny will occasionally have seconds, which is always a good sign.

This process is then usually repeated again on a different night, with different combinations based on the first test. If all goes to plan, we then either trial it at Digbeth Dining Club or at one of our tasting nights and it is officially welcomed onto the toastie list.

We still twiddle completed sandwiches a little after this, usually because we have found a better supplier for one of the components or because left over stock is inevitably pared with bacon for Barny’s supper. Sometimes we discover that it actually doesn’t improve a toastie, but not often.