When a sandwich and a sandwich sandwich, you get another sandwich
Or "Where do Patty Melts come from?"
When you combine one great thing and another great thing, it feels like the end result has no other option than to be a super great thing.
I mean, just look at Labradoodles. Or Bill Murray and Wes Anderson movies. Or Cronuts. Or this image, which is oddly zenful.
Of course, having great source material doesn’t mean greatness is guaranteed. Like a bowlful of M&M’s and Skittles. That’s something that’s not good in theory or execution.
This week as we continue our Sandwich-centric trip across the U.S., we landed in Nevada which is represented by the Emperor of hybrid sandwiches: The Patty Melt.
Going into this week, I thought I knew what a Patty Melt was. I grew up in Texas where the only places I ever had a Patty Melt was at the best fast food burger chain in the country, Whataburger. So to me, a Patty Melt was a cheeseburger but on griddled Texas Toast instead of a burger bun.
It turns out, that’s a way to make a Patty Melt, but not the way to make one. Or at least, not the Nevada way which, going solely by the sandwiches represented on the list, won the right to be the authority on this particular sandwich.
The Nevada Patty Melt is like a good old fashioned burger combined with an adult grilled cheese: rye bread, Swiss cheese, and burger patty topped with carmelized onions.
A few weeks ago, I was making something else (which I can’t remember because I don’t have a newsletter for “everything I eat all week long.” If it’s not a sandwich eaten on a Sunday, I can’t be held responsible for remembering anything about it.) But that thing — whatever it was — involved caramelizing onions. Which then resulted in burnt, poorly caramelized onions. I did a little looking into it and it turns out that properly caramelized onions take a very long time to make. You have to go low and slow to properly bring out the sugars and avoid burning them. I took that lesson and locked it away in my brain to use the next time I needed to carmelize onions
That time was now.
We opted for carmelizing our onions in the oven. It’s more hands-off which is ideal when you have a danger toddler who likes touching hot things. We combined the onions with some garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper and let them do their thing in a 300-degree oven for a few hours, mixing them every so often to ensure even cooking.
This worked like a charm and they came out (almost) perfectly. We forgot to mix them for a little too long at one point, so had to take out a couple of burnt pieces, but unlike apples, one or two burnt pieces did not spoil the whole lot.
Doing this early was fantastic because then the hard part was out of the way. We cooked the burgers and then combined them with the rye, swiss, and caramelized onions and it was done. So easy, a child could do it.**
**It may be important to note that I did none of this. Nate did. So I actually don’t know if a child could do it. It feels like something a slightly older child who is responsible and has had some education in the kitchen could probably make? If you have a danger toddler like me, though, probably not.
The sandwiches were very good. For the second week in a row, the rye bread came in for the win and added a nice Earthy flavor to the sandwich. The onions were sweet, the meat was savory, the cheese was creamy and nutty. I felt like my sandwich could’ve used more onions, but that has nothing to do with the sandwich and everything to do with “live and learn.”
This sandwich challenged my pre-existing notions about what I knew about Patty Melts. I definitely didn’t think Rye would be superior to Texas Toast, but it was. I didn’t love the ideas of onions on it, but it’s what I liked the most. Was it the best sandwich on the list? No. But it was very good and honestly way better than I expected.
I think this has made me a Nevada-Patty-Melt believer. The next time I have a Patty Melt, you can bet your sweet, sweet, caramelized onions that it won’t be on Texas Toast.
What’s your favorite Hybrid sandwich — real or imagined. Let us know in the comments!
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