1) I cannot let my loyal readers down
2) What better way to cheer myself (and others) up than with a delicious sandwich?
That decided, it was time to dive into making a classic Reuben. Due to the fact that the sandwich contains beef (which I do not eat) I recruited extra tasters this week-- mom and dad. All of the ingredients were pretty standard and easy to find, so I was quickly ready to go. A few notes, though, I decided to use light mayonnaise instead of regular since that's what we happened to have. Also, the recipe calls for rye bread, but unfortunately I could not find the usual fresh baked and dense rye that I've come to know and love. Instead, I had to go with standard bagged rye bread (but still without caraway seeds-- those are gross).
Step one was mixing up the sauce that would be spread on the sandwich. I believe real Rubens tend to use Russian dressing, so I suppose I was making a close approximation to that by mixing 1/4 cup mayonnaise with 1/4 cup chili sauce and 1 teaspoon of sweet pickle relish. I had never used chili sauce before and wasn't quite sure what it was, but it basically looked like cocktail sauce but was a little less spicy.
The sandwich called for two types of cheese: Gruyere and Emmentaler. Interestingly enough, these are the same two cheeses that I used the other week when I made myself some fondue :-) It was tasty in that context, so I was feeling good about the results we would get here. I combined 4 coarsely grated ounces of each in a bowl and set aside for later.
I prepped four slices of bread (buttered on one side, of course) and then added the dressing, spreading it evenly among the four slices.
Next came the meat-- three out of the four sandwiches got corned beef and the fourth (mine) got turkey. Let me take this opportunity to insert an editorial comment on how gross corned beef looks. It reminds me of jerky that hasn't dried all the way yet, or some sort of leathery meat. Suffice it to say, I was glad I wasn't eating it.
On top of the meat I evenly distributed a 14.5 ounce can of drained sauerkraut. By evenly distributed I mean added it fully to the beef sandwiches and to half of my sandwich. Let me take this opportunity to insert another editorial comment, this time on how gross sauerkraut smells. I immediately yelled out to my would be tasters "What IS sauerkraut anyway?" Fermented cabbage was their answer-- that says it all. Cabbage = gross. Fermented = grosser. Fortunately, my tasters all seemed to be sauerkraut fans (and I hazard a guess that there are millions more worldwide who also love this food, so perhaps I am the anomaly).
Next came the cheese. GGC warns that adding the cheese will make the sandwich seem very full, and to not worry if a few shreds of cheese are left behind. I was actually disappointed by the amount of cheese that each sandwich got. Compared to the amount of sauerkraut and meat it seemed relatively insignificant, so I took it upon myself to add some of the leftover cheese that I hadn't used.
Once the sandwiches were topped with the second piece of buttered bread they were ready for the pan. As is always the case with very full sandwiches, flipping was tricky. This was exacerbated by the fact that the sauerkraut tended to fly out of the sandwich every time it flipped.
They browned up pretty quickly, but it was hard to tell if the cheese had actually melted. The sauerkraut looks a lot like shredded cheese, so just looking inside the sandwich you see a lot of stringy-ness, but aren't too sure how much of it is cheese and how much of it is sauerkraut. I decided to just cook the sandwiches until the outside was sufficiently brown and assume that the inside was cooked as well. With that, we were ready to roll!
Taste Review:
Upon picking up the sandwich the first thing you notice is that it is a bit soggy. The sauerkraut and dressing prevented the sandwich from getting too too crispy during the cooking process, which was fine, but not a quality I've come to expect in my grilled cheeses. I would have preferred for the sandwich to be firmer, and if I had used my traditional heartier rye bread that probably would have solved the problem.
There wasn't a strong aroma, but once you took a bite it was definitely very chewy with a savory taste. More specifically, it tasted both salty and sour (as would be expected from a sandwich topped with sauerkraut). The butter on the outside of the sandwich helped to contrast the sourness by adding a bit of richness to the bread, so that was nice.
The disappointment here was that the cheese didn't really take center stage like it should on a grilled cheese (perhaps because a Reuben wouldn't fall into the traditional grilled cheese category). I think the minimal amount of cheese on the sandwich combined with the strong flavors of the meat and sauerkraut meant that the cheese flavor got sort of drowned out. I was still unable to distinguish between what was sauerkraut and what was actually cheese.
FINAL RESULTS:
Sandwich: | Classic (and Easy) Reuben |
Gooey-ness: | 3 |
Aroma: | 1.5 |
Appearance: | Looks and tastes like a sandwich you would get at a real deli. |
Taste: |
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 some of our more critical comments, we liked the sandwich overall. As usual, with a few tweaks it could be an A! But as it stood, the sandwich looked and tasted appealing-- if we were served this sandwich at a real deli, we wouldn't be disappointed.
Next Week: I'm out of town for a meeting, so will try to squeeze in a field report, but no promises. Otherwise we'll be back on track for Wednesday, June 8!
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