Gordon Ramsay reuben sandwich puts the cheese on the outside. Two slices melt straight onto the pan and the rye is pressed on top, fusing into a crust before the sandwich is built. Corned beef, caramelised sauerkraut and horseradish thousand island go inside.
The recipe comes from Idiot Sandwich, Gordon Ramsay’s sandwich cookbook, where it goes by the name Sky High Reuben. The book jokes that the cheese ended up on the outside by mistake during testing.
Everything gets cooked before it goes in. Sauerkraut caramelised in butter, corned beef crisped in the same pan, then the bread built on melted cheese. Nothing goes in cold.
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Gordon Ramsay Reuben Sandwich
Course: MainCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium2
sandwiches15
minutes15
minutes1650
kcal30 min
The Sky High Reuben from Idiot Sandwich. Corned beef crisped in butter with caramelised sauerkraut and a horseradish thousand island, stacked on rye and griddled with cheese melted onto the outside of the bread.
Ingredients
- For the thousand island:
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup minced dill pickle
2 tbsp prepared horseradish
Juice of 1 lemon
Sea salt
- For the sauerkraut and corned beef:
4 tbsp unsalted butter
¾ cup good sauerkraut, drained and squeezed
Pinch of ground black pepper
450g cooked corned beef, sliced (1 lb)
- To assemble:
6 slices good Swiss or Gruyère
4 slices rye bread
Directions
- Make the dressing: Whisk the mayonnaise, ketchup, minced pickle, horseradish and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Season with salt and set aside.
- Caramelise the sauerkraut: Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a large non-stick pan over a high heat. Add the drained and squeezed sauerkraut and cook for about 5 minutes, until lightly caramelised. Season with pepper, lift it out and wipe the pan.
- Crisp the corned beef: Back on a medium-high heat, melt the remaining 2 tbsp of butter. Add the corned beef and cook about 90 seconds a side, until it starts to crisp. Lift it out and wipe the pan again.
- Start the cheese crust: Turn the heat to medium. Lay 2 slices of cheese straight onto the dry pan and put a slice of rye on top of each. Cook until the cheese melts and fuses to the bread.
- Build in the pan: Put a third slice of cheese on top of one of those bread slices and let it melt, then pile on the caramelised sauerkraut. Spread dressing on the other slice and top it with the crispy corned beef.
- Close and serve: Once the cheese underneath both slices is golden, lift them out and press the two halves together, cheese crust facing out. Repeat for the second sandwich.
Notes
- Each sandwich takes three slices of cheese: two fused to the outsides of the bread and one melted inside on the sauerkraut half. Six slices covers both. Squeeze the sauerkraut properly before it goes in the pan, since wet sauerkraut steams instead of caramelising. Calories are worked out from the ingredients.
FAQs
Why does the cheese go on the outside?
Two slices of cheese melt directly on the pan and the bread is pressed onto them. The cheese fuses into a crisp golden crust on the outer face of each slice.
It replaces buttering the bread. You get a savoury shell that crackles instead of a soft toasted surface, and the sandwich holds together better for it.
Why caramelise the sauerkraut first?
Sauerkraut goes into the pan drained and squeezed, then cooks in butter for about five minutes until it lightly caramelises. Straight from the jar it is wet and sharp, and it would steam the bread from the inside.
Squeezing matters as much as the cooking. Wet sauerkraut hits the hot butter and steams rather than browning, so you lose the sweetness that balances the corned beef.
What is in Ramsay’s thousand island dressing?
Mayonnaise, ketchup, minced dill pickle, lemon juice and horseradish, which is the part most recipes leave out. Two tablespoons of it in half a cup of mayonnaise, so it carries real heat.
Whisk it and use it straight away, or keep it in the fridge. It only goes on one slice of bread, the one that takes the corned beef.
Why crisp the corned beef?
Ninety seconds a side in butter, in the same pan the sauerkraut just came out of. Deli corned beef arrives soft and cold, and a sandwich this heavy needs some texture in the meat.
The edges catch and go slightly frilly, which is what you want. Wipe the pan afterwards, because burnt butter would spoil the cheese crust that comes next.
What bread works for a reuben?
Rye, four slices for two sandwiches. Its density and slight sourness are what stand up to sauerkraut and a fatty dressing without collapsing.
Caraway rye suits it even better, since the seeds echo the sauerkraut. Whatever you use has to survive being pressed onto molten cheese in a hot pan.
How is a reuben different from a pastrami sandwich?
A reuben is defined by the combination: corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss and thousand island, grilled. A pastrami sandwich uses a different cure and usually goes with mustard rather than a creamy dressing.
Both start from beef brisket. Corned beef is brined, while pastrami is brined then rubbed with pepper and coriander and smoked. That rub is where the darker crust comes from.
