Camp Sub Board
Deli meat, cheese, and a jar of sauce on a hard roll. No cooking, no stove, no compromise on day one.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 12 oz
- cal / oz
- 60
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- No cook
- Cooler only
- Car camping
- Day hike
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Sturdy sub rolls or a demi baguette | 2 rolls, about 8 in each | a firm crust survives the cooler; soft supermarket rolls turn to paste |
|---|---|---|
| Sliced deli meat | 8 oz | turkey, ham, or salami; salami keeps longest |
| Sliced or shredded cheese | 3 oz | provolone or cheddar |
| Iceberg lettuce | 2 cups shredded | iceberg holds crunch in a cooler better than leaf lettuce |
| Cucumber, tomato, red onion | about 1 cup sliced total | |
| Dill pickle slices and pickled banana peppers | 1/4 cup | drain them well |
| Mayonnaise packets | 4 packets | single-serve packets are shelf-stable until opened |
| Chipotle or sweet onion sauce | 2 tbsp | carried in a small screw-top bottle |
| Dried oregano, garlic powder, and grated parmesan | 1 tsp total | the herb-and-cheese topping, moved off the bread and onto the filling |
Method
- Split the rolls most of the way through, leaving a hinge so nothing falls out on your lap.
- Squeeze the mayo packets down one cut face and spread with the back of a spoon. Add the sauce to the other face.
- Lay the cheese down first, directly on the bread. It is a moisture barrier between the sauce and the crumb.
- Add the meat, then the vegetables, then the pickles last so their brine stays near the top.
- Shake the oregano, garlic powder, and parmesan over the open face. Close, press flat, and cut in half.
This is a fast food sandwich rebuilt out of a cooler, and the only real engineering problem is water. Lettuce, tomato, and pickle brine all leak, and bread absorbs everything. Cheese against the bread on both faces slows that down, and draining the vegetables at home does the rest.
The herb topping that normally goes on the bread does not survive a cooler, so it goes inside as a dry shake of oregano, garlic powder, and parmesan. Same flavor, no baking. Rated day-one because the meat and cheese need cold; the salami-and-hard-cheese variation in the notes is the version that travels past that.
Packing
Vegetables get sliced at home and go in one container, drained hard. Meat and cheese stay sealed in their deli packaging until the sandwich is built. Rolls ride on top of the cooler, never inside it, or they go soggy. Build at the trailhead, not the night before.
Variations
- Wrap in foil, press under a pack for twenty minutes, and it eats like a pressed sandwich.
- For a shelf-stable version with no cooler: hard salami, a wedge of aged cheese, and pickled peppers only. Drop the lettuce and tomato and it holds two days.
- Toast the closed sandwich on a grill grate for four minutes a side if a fire is already going.
https://www.maritimeglutton.com/subway-copycat-recipes