YouTube is awash with videos of people making "Damascus" steel swords and knives. Whether they are truly replicating the ancient Damascus process is uncertain, but the results are often impressive.
From swordsmithing, it is but a small step to sandwichmaking. It follows, obviously, that there is room for cross-pollination between these two sister disciplines. Hence, the Damascus Sandwich.
One begins by making a regular sandwich, using the filling of your choice but, preferably, something which is extensible such as peanut butter and jelly. Once the sandwich is assembled, it is taken through a set of steam-driven rollers which flatten and elongate it. The elongated sandwich is then folded in half, and passed again through the same rollers. This process is repeated approximately 10 times, resulting in about 2,000 layers of bread-bread-filling-bread-bread. Each layer will be 15µm thick.
Finally, the fully-forged sandwich is sliced into fingers in preparation for serving. The slices should be made at a shallow angle to the bread, to better display the minutely banded structure.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 03 2019 What [beanangel] said - there's a whole lot of lamination goes into a croissant. http://www.youtube....=yw-4zNOYTjI&t=7m0s [zen_tom, Feb 03 2019] UK-based jelly similar to what they call jelly in the US https://www.waitros.../099260-50611-50612 [hippo, Feb 07 2019] https://www.waitros...97142-113420-113421 [hippo, Feb 07 2019] https://www.waitros.../620319-88028-88029 [hippo, Feb 07 2019] What's the difference between jam and jelly? http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3swxtjNSFW joke [discontinuuity, Feb 12 2019] The Sandwich sandwich The_20Sandwich_20SandwichA halfbakery classic. [DrBob, Feb 13 2019] So, you're reviving a craft skill that was thought lost (well, everyone hoped it was lost) with the demise of British Rail ?
Their foodsmiths, trained from childhood with hammer and anvil, could produce snack foods with curled edges so hard that they could cut through granite with ease. At the end of every year, unsold ham sandwiches were collected and subsequently added to the blast furnaces for making new rails. But the proportions had to be small; the sandwiches were so hard that excessive amounts could make the steel so hard as to be brittle.
The first Mk. 1 tanks, built in 1915, were armoured with railway sandwiches, which accounts for their peculiar shape (necessitated by getting the triangles to tesselate efficiently) but although the crew protection was exceptional, the resultant fragments of incoming artillery rounds created an unacceptable hazard to nearby infantry.-- 8th of 7, Feb 03 2019 I think I remember that croissants are lain flat. doubled, pounded, refolded etc many times.-- beanangel, Feb 03 2019 //demise of British Rail // To be fair, though, British Rail (a) managed to run lots of trains approximately on time (b) had actual buffet cars (c) did not charge exorbitant amounts of money for the privilege of standing up for the entire journey and (d) did not charge you five times more for failing to buy your ticket online eighteen months in advance.
//lain flat. doubled, pounded, refolded etc // You may be thinking of politicians.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 03 2019 The Mokume-gane process applied to different types of cheese would be worth trying. In fact most industrial processes translate well into food. An early idea I posted on the HB showed how to clean your teeth using your car, following a suitable squashing and mulching session.-- xenzag, Feb 03 2019 // managed to run lots of trains approximately on time //
If you reckon "on time" as "within a couple of days" ...
// had actual buffet cars //
... but no actual food ...
// did not charge exorbitant amounts of money for the privilege of standing up for the entire journey //
That's true, standing up for the entire journey was comparatively cheap, as was standing on a platform for hours waiting for a train that never turned up.
// did not charge you five times more for failing to buy your ticket online eighteen months in advance. //
... by the simple expedient of not having any discounted tickets at all.-- 8th of 7, Feb 03 2019 [8th], it has taken ten years of broken promises, failed timetable revisions, cancelled services and exponential fare increases to make me look back fondly on British Rail. Don't spoil this moment for me.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 03 2019 Sorry ... unfortunately, modern nostalgia's nowhere near as good as it used to be.-- 8th of 7, Feb 03 2019 Other flattened/layered foods include:
Decorative gold leaf on food
Marbled Halvah
multilayer candy jawbreakers
and, in a sense, those flat gel breath freshness strips.-- beanangel, Feb 04 2019 I suppose if you want to do the folding right, it will come down to the leavening agent. Virgin blood in bread is more of a sausage.-- wjt, Feb 04 2019 Mmmm, Damascus Calzone...-- hippo, Feb 04 2019 Have they ventured into saltwater taffy?
If so, did they ever return?-- RayfordSteele, Feb 04 2019 //I’ve never heard of putting jelly in a sandwich.// I was trying to capture the American market. They call jam "jelly" there - it's absolutely insane. And if I tell you what they call biscuits, you'll just fall over.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 04 2019 "Biscuits" are almost palatable compared to grits ...
// I was trying to capture the American market. //
Many would give you credit for your humane approach to the problem, but to be realistic for a moment, the kindest thing you can do is shoot it dead and put it out of its misery.-- 8th of 7, Feb 04 2019 //I tell you what they call biscuits, you'll just fall over.// What about aluminium - don't they call this "aluminum"? and don't they call nuclear "newcular"? - then of course they have their capacity to make new idiot-speak words like "covfefe". You just have to laugh (an unknown sound there) and bring a translater - a turnip with a mouth cut in it will suffice.-- xenzag, Feb 04 2019 I'm sure when he wrote "covfefe" he actually meant "cobgefe". It's an easy mistake to make.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 04 2019 // a turnip with a mouth cut in it will suffice. //
Jeremy Corbyn's a qualified translator ? Who knew, huh ?-- 8th of 7, Feb 04 2019 Aluminum is the original spelling, effing revisionists. Don't you trying to change a good thing, that spelling has gone platinum. Adding a pointless extra vowel for the sake of having chemical monotony sounds like something the French would do.
When you get around to adjusting molybdenum, tantalum, and lanthanum, warn me first.-- RayfordSteele, Feb 05 2019 //steam-driven rollers//
This is a pet peeve of mine. Rollers haven't been propelled by steam for QUITE some time.-- AusCan531, Feb 05 2019 //robotic jig// Hey! My favourite dance move!-- pertinax, Feb 05 2019 //Don't you trying to change a good thing// Much as it pains me, to the core of my being, I have to admit that [Rayfo] is not wrong. A lot of "American" spellings are actually the original ones, including "aluminum". However, in technical publications even in the US, "aluminium" is apparently favo[u]red.
What's even more galling is that many "English" spellings are in fact French-influenced (colour, honour, theatre), and the Americans have stripped out the Frenchiness. Of course, the English versions are correct by definition, but it's still annouying.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 05 2019 //you'd basically end up with some kind of sweet starchy nutty paste.// I'm not so sure. Most of the relevant molecules (starch and gluten from the bread, peanutonium from the peanuts) are quite large and shouldn't diffuse. So I think you'd retain definite lamellarity.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 05 2019 Isn't this whole thing just a variation on baklava?-- pertinax, Feb 05 2019 There are several swordsmiths who would disagree. And they're not the sort of people you want a disagreement with.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 05 2019 No, you're forgetting the whole "Now, Monkey Boy, dance for us ! Dance !" thing.-- 8th of 7, Feb 05 2019 However, in accordance with the universal Law of Conservation of Humour, a set of footwear, with smoke issuant therefrom, will remain.
It is a well known fact that, no matter what the magnitude of the weapon deployed against a specific victim, a pair of smoking boots is always left as evidence.-- 8th of 7, Feb 05 2019 Well, if the wordsmith pulls a yellow-hot adverb out of the forge and waves it at you, you might want to reconsider.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 05 2019 How's come no women ever balk at that gender- biased term?
Random thought: If my child changes their sexual identity, do I become transparent?-- RayfordSteele, Feb 05 2019 Quite possibly, but love will see you through ...
(allegedly)-- 8th of 7, Feb 05 2019 //If my child changes their sexual identity, do I become transparent?//
No idea, but that sounds like an interesting experiment, book your child in for gender reassignment & check yourself out in the mirror when it's done, let us know if it works.-- Skewed, Feb 06 2019 //It is a well known fact that, no matter what the magnitude of the weapon deployed against a specific victim, a pair of smoking boots is always left as evidence.//
Actually magnitude does matter, If you check the footage a bit more carefully (so.. frame by frame), you'll notice some of those smoking boots are stock footage spliced in, because they don't always get their deployed magnitude right.
You can even see the hand that just placed the boots just disappearing off out of frame in one of the shots.-- Skewed, Feb 06 2019 I think a crisp baklava katana, fresh from the oven, would mollify most swordsmiths. Also, it's broadly local to Damascus. Well, I was thinking of an Iraqi recipe with syrup and cardamom instead of honey and cinnamon, but that's close enough.
Mmm. Orange-blossom water.-- pertinax, Feb 06 2019 It would have to be toxic honey.
The thick red stuff has hemes and strange carbon shapes.-- wjt, Feb 06 2019 While I am not going to insult British folks the way some people insult Americans, I just want [Maxwell] to know that there is a difference between jam and jelly. Jelly is made from fruit juices and sugar whilst Jam has whole pieces of fruit in it.It’s not that Americans call jam jelly!-- xandram, Feb 07 2019 Hmm. Fair point, although whenever I've seen jam in the US it has been called "conserve" (or somesuch). And the "jelly" I've seen has been what I would call jam, albeit typically with less fruit or more finely pulped fruit.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 07 2019 I think we, in the UK, call some sugar+fruit conserves 'jelly' that they would also call jelly in the US (e.g. see link). Other conserves, with more fruit solids we call 'jam', and the gelatine-based pudding that in the US is called 'jello' we call 'jelly'. At least the US English-speakers are using a different name for each thing, whereas we use 'jelly' for both a sugar+fruit conserve and a gelatine-based pudding.-- hippo, Feb 07 2019 That's because "jelly" is not a proper noun, but a reference to an intermediate state between solid and liquid, as is "gel".-- 8th of 7, Feb 07 2019 Hmm. The only "jelly" that I've seen in the UK (other than gelatine desserts, i.e. "Jello") is "redcurrant jelly", which is transparent (red, obvs) and contains no fruit pieces.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 07 2019 Yes, the link I added was to Redcurrant Jelly. I've seen other 'jellies' of this type (blackcurrant jelly, quince jelly, medlar jelly) so I'd say it's a common enough usage of the word.-- hippo, Feb 07 2019 There was of course Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedys notoriety.-- xenzag, Feb 07 2019 //I've seen other 'jellies' of this type// Yes, but not for spreading on toast, shirley? There has to be a core of sanity that we can all rely on.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 07 2019 Call me an anarchist, but I have recently enjoyed Quince & Medlar Jelly on hot buttered toast and it was delicious. On the other hand, my son likes home-made damson jam spread on thick slices of cheese...I note in passing that the 'jam' layer of the composite laminate foodstuff (getting back to the idea topic) "Jammie Dodger" is really a fruit jelly and they should really be named "Jelly Dodgers".-- hippo, Feb 07 2019 [hippo] (dutifully, as requested) you are an anarchist.
I'm rather partial to a slice of quince jelly with some decent cheddar, or if pushing the boat out, a dollop of Cropwell Bishop.-- zen_tom, Feb 07 2019 Thanks [zen]! - even if I'm only an anarchist in the relatively narrow field of fruit conserves, it's a start.When you say "quince jelly", do you mean Membrillo? I would question whether that has the translucency and structural fragility required to be a true jelly.-- hippo, Feb 07 2019 //quince jelly with some decent cheddar// Strawberry jam on slices of decent cheddar works too.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 07 2019 Devil's Breath Chilli sauce is better ...
// I'm only an anarchist in the relatively narrow field of fruit conserves //
[marked-for-tagline]-- 8th of 7, Feb 12 2019 Ahh yes, membrillo - though calling it that is a new one on me. Apparently in Portugal, they call this stuff "marmelada", from the Portuguese for quince being "Marmelo". Our "marmelade" is likely a mutation from this root. Every day a school-day.-- zen_tom, Feb 12 2019 As in "Every day, you get mocked and humiliated by your peers, have your lunch money stolen, get tied to the school railings in the rain, and are then inevitably persecuted and traumatized by a psychotic malevolent geography teacher ?-- 8th of 7, Feb 12 2019 Either that or "Every day you mock and humiliate your peers, steal their lunch-money and then persecute and traumatize geography pupils." Circle of life, [8th].-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 12 2019 Except that geography teachers aren't "alive" in the sense that the word is normally used. "Undead" might be a better description.
After all, they have the stigmata; vicious, amoral, with an unquenchable thirst for fresh human blood, utterly indifferent to the suffering of their victims. Vampire bats (the real ones, that live in tropical forest) are likeable little things by comparison. They mat literally lap up your blood, and sometimes transmit rabies, but they don't make extravagant and unsubstantiated claims about how grateful you're going to be to them in a few years time, if that is you don't die screaming in agony first, or indeed contract rabies.-- 8th of 7, Feb 12 2019 But if it weren't for your geography teachers, you wouldn't know to avoid Belgium.-- RayfordSteele, Feb 12 2019 At least they're not teaching some airy-fairy subject like philosophy or religion. You know where you are with geography.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 12 2019 Tshhhh-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 12 2019 You know how they say that all roads lead to Rome?
Well maybe really all roads lead to Damascus, it's just that they start to go there, then turn away, then turn back, then turn away...-- Loris, Feb 13 2019 //Circle of life//
Technically, [MB], it's only a circle when what goes around, comes around.-- pertinax, Feb 13 2019 Once we are folding & re-folding sandwiches with some degree of liquid filling, I feel we are inevitably heading in the direction of hippo's 'lunch slurry' as mentioned on wagster's classic Sandwich sandwich idea (link).-- DrBob, Feb 13 2019 Ah yes, "The Sandwich Sandwich" - a classic idea. We need a way of linking to old ideas like this such that they are introduced in the style of a 'golden oldies' radio station DJ.-- hippo, Feb 13 2019 random, halfbakery