a worthwhile effort

a little more than two weeks ago i started the slow process of making a reuben from scratch. i corned my own brisket, fermented cabbage into sauerkraut, and worked on making my own rye bread. the weeks of waiting are finally over and today i finally get my homemade reuben.



like i've said before, the bread makes the sandwich. that's why i've done a few batches in preparation for today. it's a good hearty rye bread

here is the brisket following 2 weeks of brining and four hours of boiling. the flavor is great, much better than store bought corned beef.

this is the results of my first attempt at room temperature brining. the sauerkraut turned out delicious.

i kept the pot that boiled the meat in hot so i could steam the sandwich filling and melt the cheese.


it worked really well, the cheese is perfectly melted


the final sandwich, it's sloppy, real sloppy. it's also the best damned reuben i've ever had.
this was the star of the show, but i have another trick up my sleeve. this next sandwich seemed logical with the ingredients at hand.

I decided to make my version of a spike's junkyard dogs classic, the reuben dog. this was my hangover cure when spike's was still open on thayer street in providence, although i haven't had one in almost a year.

i treated the dog the same way as the brisket, kraut on the bottom and a dog wrapped in swiss cheese

i didn't have a proper bun, but i had white bread. so i put the dog on the bread and topped with my homemade thousand island dressing. once again, so sloppy but so good. this experiment was totally worth the couple weeks of waiting