New Jersey · Main
Jersey Sloppy Joe
- Intermediate
- 30 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with an earthy, grounding base, wood-smoke running underneath, trailing gentle sweetness.
Ingredients
- 12 slices rye bread, sliced thin
- 250g sliced turkey
- 250g sliced pastrami or corned beef
- 250g Swiss cheese, sliced
- 250g coleslaw, well drained
- For the Russian dressing: 200g mayonnaise, 4 tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp minced pickle, 1 tsp horseradish
The skills inside
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix the dressing ingredients and chill.
- Trim the crusts from the rye and lay out three slices per sandwich.
- Build the first layer: turkey, Swiss, slaw, and dressing. Add the middle slice of bread.
- Build the second layer: pastrami, Swiss, slaw, and dressing. Cap with the third slice.
- Press gently, chill 20 min, then cut into four neat rectangles per sandwich. 20 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder 48 recipes
- It went cold before it was handled any further, and it went in spread flat and covered rather than as a warm mass that insulates its own centre.
- It is cold through rather than cold at the edge: tested at the middle it is as firm as it is at the rim.
- It holds its shape unsupported; it can be cut, portioned, rolled or lifted without slumping, tearing, or sticking to the hands.
- The fat in it has gone solid: it feels firm and waxy to the fingers rather than greasy and yielding.
- It survives the step it was chilled for, going into heat or a coating or a mould still holding its form rather than collapsing the moment it is touched.
Where it goes wrong It was given twenty minutes instead of the hours it needed, so it is firm at the rim and soft at the core: it slumps out of shape as it is portioned, and everything made from it spreads or breaks apart in the pan.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Zinfandel (old-vine)
- Also Right
- Shiraz or Malbec
- From the Taps
- Smoked porter
- Zero-Proof
- Cherry cola, honestly
Barbecue’s sweet-smoke wants jammy fruit that shakes hands with the sauce; dry austere reds argue with sugar and lose.
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