Contents
100-190 kcal per sandwich
The easiest way to count a buterbrod, the Russian open sandwich, is layer by layer. A slice of baton loaf (25 g) is 66 kcal. A thin layer of butter (5 g) adds 37. A slice of hard cheese (15 g) is 55. A slice of doktorskaya (classic Russian boiled sausage, 25 g) is 64.
That gives the typical numbers:
- with butter: about 100 kcal;
- with cheese: 120;
- with sausage: 130;
- with butter and cheese: 160;
- with sausage and cheese: 185.
Table: calories in popular open sandwiches
Every row uses a 25 g slice of baton loaf unless stated otherwise.
| Sandwich | Made of | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | baton + 5 g butter | 103 |
| Butter, "generous" | baton + 10 g butter | 141 |
| Cheese | baton + 15 g cheese | 121 |
| Butter and cheese | baton + 5 g butter + 15 g cheese | 158 |
| Doktorskaya sausage | baton + 25 g sausage | 130 |
| Butter and sausage | baton + 5 g butter + 25 g sausage | 167 |
| Sausage and cheese | baton + 25 g sausage + 15 g cheese | 185 |
| Cervelat | baton + 3 thin slices, 15 g | 135 |
| Cream cheese | baton + 20 g cream cheese | 113 |
| Butter and red caviar | baton + 5 g butter + 10 g caviar | 128 |
| Peanut butter | baton + 16 g peanut butter | 160 |
| Light | rye bread 30 g + chicken 30 g + cucumber | 93 |
The ready-made sausage sandwich in our catalog is calculated at 65 g and 192 kcal: the bread is thicker and there is more sausage, as is usual at home.
Bread is only a third of the calories
The first thing many people cut when they start watching their diet is bread. Yet in a sandwich with butter and sausage the bread provides 66 kcal out of 167, under 40%, and the rest is fat from the butter and the sausage. So the quickest way to lighten a sandwich isn't to drop the bread but to change what's on top of it. Butter under sausage or cheese often goes on out of habit and costs 37-75 kcal a slice, so it can be spread thin or left off altogether. Roast chicken, turkey or lean ham give the same meaty feel as sausage at about half the calories. Cheese cut with a cheese plane weighs 8-10 g a slice, while a knife slice is often 20-25 g, a difference of 40-55 kcal. And cucumber, tomato and lettuce cost almost nothing but make the sandwich bigger and more filling.
Melting the cheese doesn't change anything either, since cheese from the microwave or oven is the same cheese. Calories only go up if the sandwich is fried in a pan with butter, because then the bread soaks up 5-10 g of fat, another 45-90 kcal.
How much a layer of butter, cheese and sausage weighs
The main mistake when counting sandwiches is underestimating the topping by eye. Weight guidelines:
| Layer | What it looks like | Weight | kcal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butter | thin, bread shows through | 5 g | 37 |
| Butter | normal, "like in childhood" | 10 g | 75 |
| Hard cheese | pre-sliced | 15 g | 55 |
| Hard cheese | thick, cut with a knife | 25 g | 91 |
| Doktorskaya sausage | 3-4 mm round | 20-25 g | 51-64 |
| Cervelat, dry-cured sausage | thin slice | 5 g | 23-28 |
| Cream cheese | tablespoon | 20 g | 47 |
Catalog pages: Butter, Hard cheese, Cream cheese.
If you have kitchen scales, assemble your usual sandwich on them once. You will be surprised how much a "thin layer" of butter weighs.
Sandwiches for breakfast: fine or not
Two cheese sandwiches and a cup of coffee are 250-350 kcal, a perfectly normal breakfast in calories. Its weak spot is not calories but protein: two butter and cheese sandwiches contain about 12 g. A couple of hours later you are hungry again.
To make sandwiches keep you full longer, add protein: egg, cream cheese, chicken, fish. Why that works is covered in How much protein you need a day. For the bread itself, including how much a slice of white, rye and Borodinsky weighs, there is a separate article.
How to log a sandwich quickly
There's no need to take every sandwich apart by hand each morning. In MyFoodMate AI you can photograph the plate from above or write "two sandwiches with butter and cheese on baton", and the app splits them into bread, butter and cheese, with any part open to correction, such as "less butter" or "cheese 25 g".
Frequently asked questions
Two sandwiches with butter come to about 205 kcal, with cheese about 240, and with sausage and cheese as much as 370, which is fine for breakfast if you add some protein. A sandwich with red fish, meaning a slice of baton, a thin layer of butter and 20 g of lightly salted salmon at around 200 kcal per 100 g, is roughly 145 kcal. On rye bread a sandwich is slightly lighter, as a 30 g slice of rye has 54 kcal against 66 for baton, but those 10-15 kcal matter little next to what goes on top.
We check blog materials against current WHO recommendations.
