Officially the sandwich involves coleslaw, tomato, and french fries as the topping to your choice of meat and cheese (for me that's traditionally been turkey and provolone). You can add extra meat or extra cheese or even an egg and, in my experience, any combination is really a good one. But as you can see in the photo above, the sandwich isn't grilled. Now, I'm not one to try to improve on a winning formula, but this sandwich was so good I had to include it in my blog-- and for it to be in my blog it has to be grilled! So, let's get down to it :-)
Ingredients:
* Deli sliced honey ham
* Provolone
* Coleslaw
* Tomato
* Frozen French fries (or really any french fries will do-- in an ideal world I would've gotten some waffle fries, but that wouldn't be true to the original)
* Pepperidge Farm Sourdough (I believe they usually use plain white bread, but we know how obsessed I am with the P. Farm Sourdough)
The only significant prep work to be done was cooking the french fries according to the package instructions. I had purchased pre-made coleslaw, but in retrospect making my own would have been better (this slaw was too runny, but more on that later).
Once the fries were done it was straight to sandwich assembly. Since these were going to be massive we opted for one per person and started off with two slices of provolone (yes, I'm deviating from the norm and going with slices this week) on two of the slices of bread.
Next came the honey ham.
Followed by the coleslaw.
And then another layer of provolone.
Next the tomato slices.
And yet another layer of provolone (I mean, for it to be a grilled cheese the cheese has to be the star of the show).
And finally the French fries.
It was tricky to get them to stay on the sandwich, but we prevailed.
Good gravy, this sandwich is huge! I was already having visions of fries flying as I attempted to flip the sandwich in my frying pan. This would require extreme care.
I cooked the sandwiches one at a time, covering them while they cooked on each side, and had some right tasty looking sammies in no time. I couldn't wait to dive in.
Taste Review:
Our first observation was that the sandwich was colorful-- yellow fries, red tomatoes, greenish coleslaw, pink ham. A feast for the eyes as well as the tummy. The sandwich was pretty runny though-- tomatoes are watery and the coleslaw is way creamy, so those were forces to be reckoned with. The ham and the coleslaw were both sweet and that helped to offset the saltiness of the bread and french fries. Despite the multiple layers, the cheese wasn't really a strong flavor. You could tell it was there because it gave a smoothness and creaminess to the sandwich, but the coleslaw was the main taste in the sandwich-- probably because it was so creamy since it was pre-made. This is where I revisit my point that making my own coleslaw would have been a smart choice. It was just super creamy and sweet and tended to overtake the other flavors on the sandwich. As usual, Colin had gotten out his hot sauce, but he said he didn't actually need it-- I think there were enough different flavors and elements to the sandwich that he didn't need to add one more.
As mentioned, my only minor gripe with the original was the soft bread, so grilling the sandwich brings it to the right consistency (in my opinion), but the runniness of the coleslaw was frustrating as it attempted to counteract the nice crispiness of the bread. So, in case you haven't caught on yet, changing the type of coleslaw is the main improvement I would make to this one. One other minor modification would be to use bigger French fries-- just because that would be yummy. But back to the coleslaw-- if you took that away from the sandwich it would feel like more of a grilled cheese because then the cheese would be the star of the show, but we do like this sandwich as is even if it's not, strictly speaking, a grilled cheese.
FINAL
RESULTS:
|
Sandwich:
|
Primanti Brothers Grilled Cheese
|
|
Gooey-ness:
|
5 (RUNNY, but not because of the cheese)
|
|
Aroma:
|
1
|
|
Appearance:
|
Big and colorful.
|
|
Taste:
|
A |
|
Gooey Scale
|
Aroma
Scale
|
| 1
= still cold/hard |
1 = can’t smell a thing
|
| 2
= slightly melted but still firm |
2 = tender waft
|
| 3
= melted evenly |
3 = makes
your stomach growl
|
| 4
= melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your
sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite) |
4 = strong scent
|
| 5
= runny |
5 =
overpoweringly pungent
|
| 6
= sloppy mess! |
Despite the need to improve the coleslaw situation, this sandwich was deeeelish.
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