Salami and Parmesan on Dense Bread
A hard sausage, a wedge of aged cheese, and bread that does not care about your pack.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 5 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
- Backpacking
- Day hike
- Bikepacking
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Dry-cured salami | 3 oz | a whole stick keeps better than pre-sliced |
|---|---|---|
| Hard aged cheese | 2 oz | Parmigiano-Reggiano, pecorino, or an aged gouda |
| Dense bread | 2 slices | rye, pumpernickel, or a flat sourdough that will not crush |
| Mayonnaise packet | 1 | |
| Mustard packet | 1 | |
| Dried fruit | 1/4 cup | apricots or cranberries on the side |
Method
- Slice the salami thin in the morning while you are already up. Slicing at noon means unpacking the knife twice.
- Shave the cheese off the wedge in thin pieces. Thick chunks slide out of the sandwich.
- Squeeze the mayo and mustard onto the bread, layer the salami and cheese, and close it.
- Wrap it and put it somewhere in the pack that will not get sat on. Eat it at the first view you like.
This is the lunch that works because nothing in it needs a stove, a cooler, or your attention. Dry-cured salami and aged hard cheese are both preserved by design, so they sit in a pack at eighty degrees for several days without turning. The bread is the weak link, which is why it should be dense: a soft sandwich loaf turns to compressed crumb by day two, while rye or pumpernickel arrives intact.
Fat and salt are the point. A sandwich like this runs most of its calories through the salami and the cheese rather than the bread, which is what you want at midday when you still have miles left. Cut both on the trail rather than at home. Exposed surfaces are where the oil bleeds and the flavor goes flat.
Packing
Salami and cheese travel whole and get cut on the trail, not at home. Cut surfaces go slick and pick up grit. Bread rides on top of everything else in a rigid corner of the pack. Deli packets weigh nothing and beat carrying a squeeze bottle.
Variations
- Skip the bread and eat the salami and cheese straight with a handful of crackers. Same calories, no crushing.
- A few pickled pepper rings from a packet cut through the fat.
- Swap in a firm cheddar in cold weather; it stays sliceable and does not sweat oil.
https://www.backpackthesierra.com/food-and-water