Upgrade Your Next Reuben Sandwich With A Sweet, Caramelized Ingredient

When it comes to 1950s throwback sandwiches, Reubens seem to have it all. Hot seasoned meat, creamy dressing, and tangy sauerkraut, all layered between slices of aromatically earthy bread. But if you want to add a little something extra that complements all these ingredients, caramelized onions are the way to go, offering a touch of sweetness, subtle texture, and great vegetable flavor.

The perfect caramelized onions seem to go on just about everything, but they're especially great on Reubens. The fats used to caramelize them boost the richness of the corned beef or pastrami and add another layer of flavor. Those caramelized sugars help mitigate the bite of sauerkraut, but not so much that your sandwich won't have that touch of tang that's vital to cutting through the other heavy ingredients. If you opt for Russian dressing over Thousand Island, those same sugars blend with the horseradish to create a complex web of flavors, ranging from decadently rich onions to sinus-searing heat, all without having to adjust your condiment recipe.

Still, there's something homey and comforting about caramelized onions, just like swirled rye bread that's both rustic and fresh. While they can take a bit of time to cook, they keep for about four days in the fridge and represent a holistic approach to upgrading each individual ingredient on your sandwich. If you love Reubens but are tired of the same old, they offer one of the highest returns on investment and are dead easy to incorporate.

While raw onions can be enjoyed cold or warm, caramelized ones are typically best when consumed hot. Fortunately, their moisture and fat content make them easy to reheat, whether you just pop them in the microwave or get a bit creative and work them into your other ingredient prep.

For the meltiest cheese on such a thick sandwich, you might get better results by layering a slice over your bread and popping the whole thing under the broiler. This not only gives you great texture but also presents a chance to enhance your caramelized onions. A short burst of high heat should warm them all the way through, while the cheese can also act like glue that keeps your onions from shooting out the back of the bread when you take a bite. Compared to warming each side of a fully assembled sandwich, this method offers far better heat penetration and a more consistent result while still toasting your bread a bit.

Cold caramelized onions typically have some congealed juices, and letting those go to waste is a missed flavor opportunity. Warming your meat in a pan before layering it on not only gives it a bit of a toasted flavor, but doing so with a scattering of onions on top lets all that flavor drip directly into the meat. This has the added benefit of helping prevent your meat from drying out, as the onions release additional moisture to compensate for some of what the meat loses during heating.