Melty, Cheesy, Beefy, Juicy, Crispy Patty Melt

Hello, delicious patty-melt-on-sour-dough-because-I-don’t-like-rye….you are beautiful ;-)

Why no….I have no idea why my ass is currently 3 feet wide….do you?

Who doesn’t love a hot, melty, stringy, cheesy, crispy, grilled……..anything?! I didn’t grow up a fan of the patty melt – I hate rye bread. But at this stage of the game of life, I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t thank about swapping breads long ago- ‘cuz my caboose would be even bigger!

I don’t think y’all need to be told how make a patty melt – after all it’s just a patty of juicy ground beef (fyi, press it thin and make it a good inch all-around bigger than the bread if your meat is 80/20); lip-smackingly caramelized, grilled onions; Swiss cheese, 1,000 Island dressing and good bread. Yes, yes…..traditionally rye, but in this case – it as sour dough….about ¾ inch thick sour dough. The loaf was heavy, but we could tell the bread was ‘airy’ which told me ‘this will get totally crispy on the grill!’ (as opposed to a more dense bread that could get soggy on the inner sides).

What makes a patty melt different from a ‘grilled cheese with hamburger in it’? I don’t really know – but I can tell you this: it IS different! I think the trick to this awesome, juicy, cheese-oozing sandwich was time and temp on the griddle. The heat was not too high (you don’t want your sandwich to burn before the inside has gotten sufficiently melty) and not too low (butter on the outside takes so long to melt is hardly gets crisp ands golden…just more yellow). You want a good, medium heat and then, if you have a cast iron press (I used a cast iron bacon press), layh it on top of the sandwich to help concentrate that heat and get the most crispy, uniformly melted, hot sandwich ever!

Yeah, yeah, I know….my bacon press allowed me to create a ‘poor mans panini press’. If you have an actual panini maker, I’m sure this post will sound rather like a grandparent telling you how to crank up the old Victrola – but I beg you…indulge me.

Thanks much ;-)

You know…if you were making three or four sandwiches on a griddle, I imagine you could press the tips down with a bog ol’ cast iron pan and do all four at once! Who needs Oprah’s favorite Breville Panini Makes (at $119) when you can slap a pan on yer sammich?!

Anyhoo – on one of these cold days, treat yourself to a toasty hot, cheesy, dreamy, juicy patty melt – pick your own bread………….you know I will :-)