Reuben

When I first started this hobby blog, I set out to make 52 sandwiches and rank my favourites. I fully anticipated the classic reuben would make the top 10.

So let’s see how that goes.

Firstly, COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in my sandwich making plans. I live in Toronto and planned to scour the city for premium sandwich ingredients to build my perfect sandwiches. It turns out, foraging for great food is no longer in the cards.

So consider this version of the reuben the grocery store reuben. Instead of Kensington market’s delicious rye bread, I’ve retrieved a generic loaf of rye out of my freezer. Instead of sourcing smoked meat from a top shelf establishment in Scarborough, I managed to find a decent Lester’s smoked meat package of four wrapped in plastic at the grocery store. It is what it is.

Craig often helps me with these sandwiches but in this case, he’s offered to take control of the griddle and I couldn’t be happier. My contribution is the special sauce—russian dressing.

I’ve spent more time than I should have researching the myriad of russian dressing recipes out there. You could go the Martha Stewart route and mix mayo, ketchup, green relish, worcestershire sauce, and lemon. You could go the New York Times route and mix mayo, ketchup, pickle relish (not sweet), minced onion, and worcestershire.

Or you could go my way: 1/2 cup Hellman’s mayo, 3 tbps ketchup, 2 tbsp minced onion, 1 tsp horseradish, 1/2 tsp worcestershire, 1/4 tsp dried mustard, a pinch of good quality smoked paprika, a squeeze of two lemon wedges. This russian dressing is so good you’ll want to put on all kinds of sandwiches or drizzle it over an iceberg wedge salad. It’s a keeper.

Now for the sandwich, which Craig is executing. Making a reuben is pretty straightforward: butter two slices of rye bread.

Add the meat, which in this case was heated up in its plastic case in a steaming pot of water. Not very glamorous but this is why it’s a grocery store reuben.

There are several schools of thought when it comes to meat to everything-else-ratio for the reuben. For me, less is more. For Craig, more is best. We’re going to try both versions and weigh in on which is better in the end. Let’s start with my version.

Sometimes I think I love sandwiches for the condiments and add-ons more than for the main ingredient. For instance, I am perfectly happy ordering a street meat hot dog without the wiener. I did that once at a hot dog stand in downtown Toronto and the vendor was mystified by the fact that I was ordering a bun with cheese yet still insisting to pay full price.

I told him that his condiment selection was awesome: great quality sauerkraut, ballpark mustard, chopped onions, chopped pickles. Who needs the meat?

He was so perplexed that he gave me the ‘hot dog’ for free, despite my persistence that I simply wanted a “condiment sandwich” and was happy to pay full price. So, maybe that’s just me …

Thin slices of smoked meat goes down on my sandwich (there’s a spread of hot Keen’s mustard underneath there).

Swiss cheese goes down next.

I love, love, love sauerkraut, so we’re putting a heaping pile of Strub’s wine sauekraut on my sandwich.

The other slice of bread gets a generous helping of my homemade russian dressing. And into a hot pan that goes to crisp up both sides of the reuben sandwich the way you would a grilled cheese. This is critical. I’ve got a bone to pick with restaurants that serve you a reuben that isn’t buttered on the outside and grilled so it’s crispy and crunchy.

So here’s my version and it’s more condiment sandwich than proper reuben. I like it but it feels out of balance. Let’s see if Craig’s version is better.

He’s changing up the ratio and the order of ingredients. Keen’s mustard goes down on the bottom slice of bread, then sauerkraut (much less than mine), then a pile of smoked meat, topped with swiss cheese. Russian dressing (less than mine) goes on the top slice of bread.

For his version, Craig changes up the method to encourage better cheese melting. The bottom half (bread, butter side down), meat and cheese goes into the pan but he covers it with a lid to steam it. Then he removes the lid and grills both sides until golden crunchy.

That’s more like it. We both agree Craig’s version is superior. The only thing I would change is to add more sauerkraut. But even for a grocery store reuben, this one’s better than most versions you’ll get at a restaurant. Unless you’re in Montreal or New York, of course.

–Trish Hennessy (with Craig Pickthorne)