Concerning the Reuben

Its hard to imagine something so prosaic as the Reuben sandwich ( an item that still appears on deli menus in every city) being a historic dish, but like many of our every-day foods, it does indeed have a story. Just a cursory search online reveals that there are several legends (all unconfirmed of course) concerning the Reuben's origins.

According to Linda Stradley of What's Cooking America , the first legend is that the sandwich was created in 1914 by Arnold Reuben, the founder of Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessan, for a down and out actress.

Another version is that Reuben Kulakofsky, a grocer in Omaha Nebraska, made the first Reuben for his poker group in 1925. One of the players, Charles Shimmel, owner of the Blackstone hotel, then put the sandwich on the hotel's menu.

Several other claims to fame are dated from the 1950's. So which one is the true story? Maybe they all are! I dare anyone to track down the absolute "truth" on such bits of cherished Americana, their stories are just too complex.

Regardless, everyone seems to agree on the recipe: Corned Beef +Sauerkraut+ Swiss Cheese+Russian Dressing on grilled Rye Bread. And thus, I come to one of the main reasons that we decided to try our hand at making Corned Beef this week....if everything is better when it is homemade, then what would a Reuben be like with actual old fashioned cured beef instead of the thinly sliced, chemical laden cold cuts that one finds at the grocery store?

The answer is- undeniably delectable. Our corned beef was salty, without being overwhelming, and succulent, with just the right amount of fatty marbling. Combined with pungent swiss cheese, acidic fermented sauerkraut, and creamy Russian dressing (simply ketchup and mayo-sorry, no from scratch craziness there), the synergy of flavors was perfect. Im not claiming that I would go through this amount of trouble for all future Reubens, but it is definitely a project that I would find well worth repeating at some point.

Classic Reuben Sandwich (serves 2)

2Tbs Butter

2 slices of Rye or Marble Rye Bread

4 slices of Corned Beef

4 slices of Swiss Cheese

1/2 Cup Sauerkraut, drained

1/4 Cup Russian Dressing (quick and easy version: equal parts mayo and ketchup)

Arrange the filling items on two slices of bread and top with the remaining bread. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Grill sandwiches on both sides until golden brown-about 15min. Serve hot, preferably with a dill pickle on the side.

If you dont want to go through all the trouble but would like to taste a little of the real thing, I suggest a visit to Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen in Portland, Oregon where they cure and smoke their own corned beef and pastrami in house.

Pastrami, bialy, latke, and over easy eggs at Kenny & Zuke's

Next up, another classic American dish to finish off our corned beef: Corned Beef Hash with Eggs

Old Fashioned Preservation: Corned Beef

Its well past Saint Patrick’s Day, but here in the Antediluvian Kitchen we’re making corned beef, and everything in the fridge must make way for our enormous enameled dutch oven with its precious cargo of beef brisket floating in a sea of spiced brine.

Corned beef, that lovely salty meat that we cant imagine making Reuben sandwiches without, is beef that has been cured or preserved by allowing it to soak for some time in a bath of salt, herbs, and spices. (The word ‘corned’ refers not to the vegetable but to an old English term for a grain of salt.) Before the 20th century ushered in the widespread use of chemical refrigeration, the preservation of meat, for storage or for transportation, was a hot issue. In the past decay was staved off (albeit temporarily) by smoking, drying, canning, and, our method for this article, salt curing.

Simply put, salting preserves meat by depriving bacteria and mold of the water that they need in order to survive and reproduce. The addition of salt creates such a high concentration of sodium chloride ions outside of the microbes, that water is drawn out of their cell walls, salt is drawn in, and they either die or their reproduction slows to a snail’s pace. Meat preserved in such a way will keep uncooked for many months. Today of course we don’t need to resort to complicated methods of preservation, but the process of salt curing meat can still be appreciated for its contributions to appearance and texture.

But how did corned beef come to find its well-known association with Saint Patrick’s day? Despite the popular assumption that the dish is part of traditional Irish cuisine, its connection with the holiday actually stems from Irish American culture and is more often a part of celebrations here in the US than it is overseas. For a more in-depth analysis check out Francis Lam’s article St. Patrick’s day controversy; Is corned beef and cabbage Irish?

To make our own exploration of this old fashioned method of meat preservation, we referred to Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton’s recipe in their book Preserved.

This is a wonderful guide to traditional methods of preservation that covers such wide ranging topics as drying, salting, smoking, fermenting, preserving with sugar and alcohol, and air exclusion. And this is no dry tome my friends, it is filled with enough glossy photos to please any foodie porn addict.

Their recipe calls for 5-9lbs of meat, which was a bit much for us to tackle, so we ended up halving the measurements.

1 ½ Cups sea salt of kosher salt (we used pickling salt)

7Cups Fresh water

2 cloves garlic

½ a large onion, roughly chopped

1 tbs whole mustard seeds

1 tbs whole coriander seeds

½ tbs whole cloves

1 ½ tbs whole peppercorns

1 large bay leaf

½ tbs thyme

1 beef brisket, about 3lbs (we used a lovely cut of grass-fed beef from Skagit River Ranch )

You will need a non-metallic vessel for brining. The only thing that we had in the house that was large enough was our enameled cast iron dutch oven. If we ever decide to increase the amount of meat we're going to have to get more creative...

Mix the salt and water and stir until the salt has dissolved. (The brine is the correct strength when a fresh uncooked egg will float in it). Add the remaining ingredients and the brisket. The meat must remain submerged at all times so weigh it down. I found that a good heavy ceramic plate did the trick.

Cover the brining vessel and refrigerate for 10 days , turning the brisket over every other day. The smell will be intoxicating but you must remain patient! When the beef has finished curing you can use half of it immediately and freeze the rest for another day.

When you remove the beef from its brine you will notice that its texture has become much denser and that the outer layer has changed color- something more akin to the color of cooked meat. The inside of the brisket will still be pink.

To cook the corned beef on its own, cover it with water, bring to a boil, skim the surface, and simmer for 4-5 hours. That sounds like alot of time, especially if you cut your brisket in half, but trust me, that meat will be tough and the long slow cooking is important. It will be ready when fork-tender.

We noticed that the meat had a distinct gamey flavor, but whether this was due to the curing process or the fact that our cow spent most of its life prancing around green pastures, rather than standing in a stall, I cant say. Perhaps further experimentation with salt curing will help me answer this question.

We'll be using some of this corned beef in homemade Reubens later this week so stay tuned!

The Past Is A Foreign Country

“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.”, begins L.P Hartley’s famous novel The Go Between. Since I first read that line in a grad school seminar, I have been unable to forget it, for I was captured by the notion that it suggested to me; that the past is separated from us more by distance and national borders than time. That it is another land, unfamiliar to us, but as present and open to communication as any far off continent is to us today.

What if we continued that thought and, like classic explorers, we could journey to this new (or rather old) land and learn its customs, its politics, and its aesthetics? What if we could view history with more than just nostalgia, and instead forge a connection between its people and our own? Perhaps then the past would emerge phoenix-like from its own static ashes and transform into something rich and living that would still have relevance for the people of today….perhaps we just need to learn its language in order to speak with it.

And what better way to begin than with food? The act of dining together has cemented relations between many nations and has often helped to lay the foundations for understanding. Even in our everyday lives we solidify friendships and family connections by sharing food, for food has always been one of the great equalizers. Whatever our differences, we all must eat in order to live, and many of us (myself included) live to eat!

In this blog I intend to explore the old fashioned, the endangered, and the extinct of the culinary world, as well as offer a few words in praise of slow food and mindful eating. So join me in breaking bread with this foreign country of the Past and see what it may have to teach us, we might just be surprised …..or at the least, it will whet our appetites!