Cooking web notes

Patty Melts

Stacked patty melts

We love food on the grill but it was a “no go” the other night due to pouring rain ~ who wants to stand out in the rain with an umbrella and grill?  Guess I could’ve gone out and held the umbrella over Bill but, that didn’t enter my mind then.  ;)  So, the perfect solution was patty melts for dinner.

I love burgers on the grill but a patty melt is not a burger.  Burgers can have all sorts of condiments on them plus mushrooms, bacon, pickles, lettuce; any way you want to dress it up.  A patty melt is just that, it stands by itself ~ it’s all about the caramelized onions cooking on the griddle, the meat and topping it with cheese ~ served on rye toast.

First of all, I caramelized the onions, then toasted the bread on the griddle, cooked the burgers, topped them with cheese, then assembled the sandwiches and finished with grilling them.  I made the burgers in an oval shape a little larger than our favorite rye bread. If you prefer Swiss cheese, use that.  And there you have a great sandwich. 

Patty melts are quintessential diner food!  And then are tuna melts…  Have you ever enjoyed them?

PATTY MELTS

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons butter

2 large Vidalia onions, sliced thinly

8 slices rye bread

1½ pounds chuck ground beef

8 slices American cheese

Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter on griddle or in skillet.

Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally until caramelized, about 20 minutes.

Remove onions, set aside.

Lay bread slices flat on a plate or waxed paper.

Butter each slice of bread on the top side, dividing 1 tablespoon of butter.

Flip bread and butter other side with 1 tablespoon of butter, divided.

Toast bread on both sides on the griddle until bread is a light golden color, about 1 minute per side.

Set bread aside.

Divide beef into 4 patties and season with salt and pepper.

Cook until beef is medium-rare, about 3 minutes per side.

Remove patties from griddle.

Assemble sandwiches:

Lay 4 slices of toasted bread on griddle.

Top each with ¼ of onion mixture, one beef patty, one slice of cheese and another slice of toasted bread.

Melt remaining tablespoon of butter on griddle.

Grill sandwiches on both sides, for a short time until the cheese is melted and toast is a golden brown.

Serve

This is one of my favorite sandwiches, how about you?  What’s yours?

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 5:08 AM and is filed under American cheese, Beef, Cheese, Entree, Ground beef, Onions, Sandwiches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.