FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Mark R. Vogel
Epicure1@optonline.net
Corned Beef’s Finest Hour
Arnold Reuben (1883-1970), opened a deli in New York City in
1908. After a few relocations it settled in its final home at Madison and 58th
or 59th (depending on the source), where it stayed for the next three decades.
As the story goes, in 1914 an actress by the name of Annette Seelos, who was
working on a Charlie Chaplin film at the time, stopped into Reuben’s. Allegedly
she stated: “I’m so hungry I could eat a brick.” Reuben took some rye bread and
added Virginia ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, cole slaw and Russian dressing. Seelos
was so pleased with his concoction that she requested it be named after her.
Reuben, taking his due credit and rebuffing her narcissism stated: “The hell I
will. I’ll call it a Reuben’s Special!”
The next scenario takes place somewhere between 1920 and
1935, or in the year 1955, again, depending on whom you ask. Supposedly a grocer
by the name of Reuben Kay created a sandwich of corned beef, Swiss cheese and
sauerkraut on rye bread, during a weekly poker game in Omaha, Nebraska.
In yet another twist in the ontological saga of the Reuben,
other Nebraskans claim the sandwich was invented by a grocer named Reuben
Kulakofsky in Omaha’s Blackstone Hotel in either 1922 or 1925 for the players of
a poker game. It was a big hit so the hotel owner placed it on the menu and
named it a “Reuben” in Kulakofsky’s honor.
And if that’s not confusing enough, a final yarn is that a
waitress of the Blackstone Inn, whose employer’s father played poker with Reuben
Kay, entered the sandwich in a sandwich contest and won. Supposedly her boss, a
trained chef, tweaked Kay’s recipe by adding Russian dressing, replacing the rye
bread with pumpernickel, and then buttering and grilling the bread.
Whatever its origins the Reuben is a classic sandwich and an
American favorite. The current recipe includes corned beef, Swiss cheese,
sauerkraut, (although some still use cole slaw), and Russian dressing on rye
bread, with the option of buttering and toasting/grilling the bread.
Corned beef usually comes from the brisket. The brisket is a
cut taken from the breast section. It is rather tough and requires long, slow
cooking. It is best when braised. Corned beef is made by curing it in a seasoned
brine. Curing refers to various procedures employed primarily to preserve foods,
but also add flavor. Foods can be cured with smoke, salt, or a brine. A basic
brine is a mixture of water and salt but customarily, as in corned beef, the
mixture will also include seasonings to enhance flavor. The term “corned” has
nothing to do with corn (on the cob). “Corn” is an English word for any small
particle. Hence, it is derived from the “corns” of salt used to preserve meats.
Russian dressing is so named because it originally contained
caviar. Putting real Russian caviar in salad dressing is like mixing a bottle of
top notch Bordeaux into a punch bowl. Be that as it may, Russian dressing has
more recipes than the Reuben has stories of its origin. It will always contain
mayonnaise, ketchup or chili sauce, and grated onion and/or chives. From there
the sky’s the limit. Other possible ingredients include sugar, vinegar, lemon
juice, Worcestershire sauce, pimentos, capers, sour cream, horseradish, paprika,
parsley, dill, etc. Here’s my recipe for Russian dressing but feel free to
augment it to your taste.
3 oz. mayonnaise
1 oz. ketchup
1 oz. minced onions or chives
1 teaspoon horseradish
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Half teaspoon paprika
Chopped parsley or dill to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
OK let’s make a Reuben. Once again, like seemingly everything else in the
culinary world, there are a number of possibilities. First you must decide
whether you want the bread toasted and/or the cheese melted. If not, it’s pretty
straightforward: Simply pile whatever amount of corned beef, Swiss cheese,
sauerkraut, and Russian dressing on your rye bread and dig in. If you want just
the bread toasted but nothing else heated, place it in a toaster, the oven, or
on a grill.
The latter two options give you the choice of buttering it
first. Or, if you’d like the cheese melted, place the buttered bread, topped
with the cheese into an oven and toast the bread and melt the cheese
concurrently, then add the remaining ingredients. If you want the entire
sandwich heated take two slices of bread, build each half, and then place them
into an oven.
Another option is to compile the entire sandwich first and
place it on a griddle. Press it down with a sandwich press or a heavy skillet
and flip it when the first side is browned. Or, the ultimate method would be to
use a panini press. A panini is basically a toasted sandwich. A panini press is
two grills connected by a hinge. Place the sandwich on the bottom grill and
close the upper grill on top of it. This allows both sides to be grilled
simultaneously. Any way you slice it, you’ll have a great sandwich.
