The Lake/After Thanksgiving/Iron Bowl Sandwich. Seriously!
If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving at Silverock Cove this year, and I think many of us are, we should all try and brace ourselves for the decadence that is three serious Southern favorites packed into one long weekend—lake, epic meals, and football. And it is only fitting that the Iron Bowl falls this year on the Super Bowl of sandwich-making days. As seriouseats.com put it a couple of years back, it’s a ritual as American as Thanksgiving itself—the transformation of Thanksgiving leftovers into a very serious sandwich.
Here’s list of very serious Thanksgiving sandwiches, courtesy of the Serious Eats team and some of their best contributors. Each one almost good enough to make you forget who you’re pulling for that afternoon. (Just a little joke.) But do enjoy!
LUCY BAKER, Serious Eats roving reporter. Brie and cranberry sauce on toasted leftover dinner rolls!
ALAINA BROWNE, Serious Eats general manager. Sandwich must consist of two slices of bread, any kind will do; leftover white turkey meat; cranberry sauce; a little bit of mayo, salt, and pepper. Must be eaten standing over kitchen counter and chased with a small slice of pumpkin pie.
JOE CAMPANALE, Debonair magazine. In the form of a recipe, it is:
Joe Campanale’s Ideal Leftover Thanksgiving Sandwich
Ingredients
Balthazar brioche, 2 slices, toasted Roast turkey, dark meat, lots of skin. Frisée Sweet German mustard. A glass of Riesling, to wash it down.
AMANDA CLARKE, In Design and In Gear contributor.
Form some leftover bread-based stuffing into two thin patties (you may need to moisten the stuffing a bit with stock or water to get it to good packing consistency). Layer fillings of your choice between the patties–maybe some shavings of leftover turkey, a few slices of cooked bacon, a slice or two of sharp cheddar, and a little hint of cranberry or barbecue sauce. Melt a good bit of butter in a skillet until it foams. Cook the stuffing sandwich on both sides, until it gets a nice brown crust on the outside and is warmed through (it’s important to make sure the stuffing patties are fairly thin, otherwise, the sandwich will never warm through before it starts to stick and burn). Then, eat it!
(Oh my!)
JAMIE FORREST, curdnerds.com. From the bottom up: bread, mayo, turkey, stuffing, gravy-soaked bread, turkey, cranberry sauce, bread.
DORIE GREENSPAN, DorieGreenspan.com. Sliced turkey, preferably dark meat, and some of my homemade cranberry sauce (which is thick and chunky and has raisins and apples). It’s nice on crusty New York rye bread with a few leaves of romaine lettuce and a swish of either Russian dressing or sharp mustard.
NICK KINDELSPERGER, The Paupered Chef. A little cranberry sauce smeared on the bread, or even extra dressing. But the one ingredient that sends a leftover sandwich into a different realm of pleasure is bacon. Be sure to add plenty of black pepper and mayo and everything is right with the world.
ADAM KUBAN, Serious Eats managing editor. The Thanksgiving Slider. Start with one dinner roll (a staple of my family’s Thanksgiving meal), smear butter on both halves, and then layer with small amounts of everything on the plate: mashed potatoes; corn kernels, peas, or whatever vegetable is handy; stuffing; turkey; gravy. Add some more mashers to hold everything down, and then, for some tartness, spread a thin layer of cranberry sauce on the roll top before closing the sandwich. Now you’re good to go. Layer order is important here. Mashed potatoes must come first to “glue” all these elements together, particularly the veggies, which should come next. Stuffing tends to stay put, especially if you use a nice (relatively) big turkey slice to hold it down. At this point, a second layer of mashed potatoes does little as mortar, but it’s necessary for taste. The cranberry sauce is optional.
REE aka THE PIONEER WOMAN, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Do a grilled sandwich or panini using shredded or sliced turkey, mozzarella cheese, sliced roma tomatoes, basil leaves, a tiny splash of olive oil/balsamic, then grill it on crusty French bread that’s been spread generously with butter. If you don’t have basil, spread jarred pesto sauce (from the fridge) on the inside of each slice of bread. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with leftover turkey and giblet gravy smashed between two slices of white bread. Talk about the ultimate comfort food. And artery clogger.
ERIN ZIMMER, Serious Eats D.C. bureau chief. A Thanksgiving panini on sourdough with melted brie, chunky cranberry sauce, dressing, and turkey.
