Reuben on rye from Katz's Delicatessen |
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| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | Disputed. (Nebraska or New York) |
| Creator(s) | Disputed. Claimed Reuben Kulakofsky (Omaha) or by Arthur Reuben (NY) |
| Dish details | |
| Course served | Main Course |
| Main ingredient(s) | Corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing or Thousand Island dressing, and rye bread |
The Reuben sandwich is a hot sandwich of layered meat, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, with a dressing. These are grilled between slices of pumpernickel or rye. The meat is either corned beef or pastrami, and the dressing is either Russian or Thousand Island dressing. Several variants exist.[1]
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One account holds that Reuben Kulakofsky (sometimes spelled Reubin, or the last name shortened to Kay), a Lithuanian-born grocer from Omaha, Nebraska, was the inventor, perhaps as part of a group effort by members of Kulakofsky's weekly poker game held in the Blackstone Hotel from around 1920 through 1935. The participants, who nicknamed themselves "the committee", included the hotel's owner, Charles Schimmel. The sandwich first gained local fame when Schimmel put it on the Blackstone's lunch menu, and its fame spread when a former employee of the hotel won a national contest with the recipe.[2]
Other accounts hold that the reuben's creator was Arnold Reuben, the German owner of the once-famous, now defunct Reuben's Delicatessen in New York,[3] who, according to an interview with Craig Claiborne, invented the "Reuben special" around 1914.[4] The earliest references in print to the sandwich are New York based but that is not conclusive evidence, though the fact that the earliest, from a 1926 edition of Theatre Magazine, references a "Reuben special" specifically does seem to take its cue from Arnold Reuben's menu.
A version of that story is related by Bernard Sobel in his book Broadway Heartbeat: Memoirs of a Press Agent and claims that the sandwich was an extemporaneous creation for Marjorie Rambeau inaugurated when the famed Broadway actress visited the Delicatessen one night when the cupboards were particularly bare.[5] Some sources name the actress as Annette Seelos, and note that the original "Reuben special" sandwich did not contain corned beef or sauerkraut and was not grilled; still other versions give credit to Alfred Scheuing, Reuben's chef, and say he created the sandwich for Reuben's son, Arnold Jr., in the 1930s.[2]
The Rachel sandwich is a variation on the standard Reuben sandwich that substitutes pastrami for the corned beef and coleslaw for the sauerkraut.[6] Other recipes for the Rachel call for turkey instead of corned beef or pastrami.[7][8] In some parts of the United States, especially Michigan, this turkey variant is known as a "Georgia Reuben" or "California Reuben", which sometimes uses barbecue sauce instead of Russian or Thousand Island.
The Blue Reuben is a variation on the standard Reuben sandwich. It has Blue Cheese Dressing instead of the normal dressing.
The grouper Reuben is a variation on the standard Reuben sandwich that substitutes grouper for the corned beef and sometimes will substitute coleslaw for the sauerkraut as well. This variation is often a menu item in restaurants in Florida.[9]
Reuben egg rolls, sometimes called "Irish egg rolls" or "Reuben balls", use the standard reuben sandwich filling of corned beef, sauerkraut, and cheese inside a deep-fried egg roll wrapper. Typically served with thousand island dressing as an appetizer or snack, they originated at Mader's, a German restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where chef Dennis Wegner created them for a summer festival in about 1990.[10]
Reuben pizza was featured on the Travel Channel's show Man v. Food. The restaurant Black Market Pizza in Ames, Iowa, specializes in sandwich-themed pizzas. The Reuben consists of a sweet-potato dough—topped with Thousand-Island dressing, Swiss cheese, corned beef, sauerkraut, mozzarella cheese, and caraway seeds—that is baked, then topped with pickles before serving.
The virgin Reuben or vegetarian Reuben is a variation on a grilled cheese sandwich using the traditional Reuben ingredients of Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and dressing on rye bread, without pastrami or corned beef.