The Best Sandwich Ever: Part I

Soon, you will hold the recipe to the perfect hot lunch or dinner sandwich. Your friends at work will even be jealous of your cold leftovers the next day. Although this may disappoint some of you, with some preparation you will never be able to eat this out at a restaurant or diner again. I will by no means promise that it is a quick meal to throw together.

I've separated the meal into a 2 part recipe: Part 1 will include prepping the corned beef and the thousand island dressing following a very thorough grocery store trip to make sure you have all the ingredients you need. Part 2 will consist mainly of the assembly and cooking of the sandwiches. It is possible to prepare this in one afternoon or evening, granted that you will need about 3 hours to spare. Most of that cooking time goes to the corned beef simmering, so if you insist on cheating to buy corned beef from the deli, that will cut down the total time to about 45 minutes. It makes a huge difference on your palate if you do all the cooking yourself, but it is up to you. Try it, and you will be amazed.

Grocery List:
1 lb sliced deli swiss (not too thick, not too thin)
fresh seedless rye bread
1 bag sauerkraut, drained
thousand island dressing (see recipe below)
Hormel raw Corned beef (it includes the seasoning packet)
celery stalks (if you have them, no need to buy them just for this)
butter, for cooking the sandwiches

For the Thousand Island dressing:
1 c mayonnaise
3/4 c ketchup
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sweet relish
1 tbsp kosher dill pickles, chopped
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2  tsp black pepper
1 tsp red wine vinegar

Combine the above ingredients below in a bowl. Refrigerate to chill until you are ready to build the sandwiches. This will last in a tupperware container for a week in the refrigerator. The recipe can be doubled if you think you need more dressing.

For the corned beef:
Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add pickling seasoning and chopped celery stalks. Place the beef into the water carefully to prevent spilling. Simmer over medium/medium-low heat for 45 minutes per pound (the package says 50 but the meat will be too dry if you cook it that long). Flip the meat once an hour to ensure even cooking on both sides.

Remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Trim off excess fat (it is a thick layer on top of the meat that needs to be removed to prevent the sandwich from being too greasy). Slice thickly at about 1/8" and set aside until ready to use.

You are now officially ready for the best sandwich ever...stay tuned for tomorrow's blog on how to put them together!