Reuben Sandwich

Ingredients

• 4 slices of rye bread
• 300 g pastrami or salt beef, thinly sliced
• 150 g sauerkraut
• 150 g emmental or gruyere, sliced
• 4 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 2 gherkins, finely chopped
• 40 g soft butter

Method

1. Squeeze the sauerkraut

   Drain the sauerkraut and squeeze it dry in your hands, then warm it briefly in a dry pan. Straight from the jar it floods the sandwich and the bread never stands a chance.

2. Make Russian dressing

   Mix the mayonnaise, ketchup and chopped gherkins with a pinch of pepper. Sharp and pink — it is doing the job of cutting through fat, salt and cheese all at once.

3. Build it cheese-first

   Spread dressing on both slices, then cheese, beef, sauerkraut and more cheese. Cheese against both slices means it melts into the bread and glues the whole thing together.

4. Butter the outside, cook low

   Butter the outer faces and cook in a pan over a medium-low heat, pressing gently, for 4 minutes a side. Low heat is essential: the cheese in the middle takes longer to melt than the rye takes to burn.

   8 min

5. Rest before cutting

   Let it sit a minute so the filling settles, then cut in half. Cut straight away and the melted cheese runs out onto the board.

   1 min