This was patty melt.
The "
Rye in July" story on King Arther Flour's blog was very persuasive. Once I finished reading the post, I made a shopping list to bake my own rye bread with sourdough starter. Some ingredients of the bread like pumpernickel flour, dill pickles juice, and dill seeds were new to my baking world. After I collected all ingredients for the bread I need, I googled how to make patty melt. I was ready. Like the blog post, I used 6 oz of sourdough starter and mixed the dough with bread machine. While my dough seemed to be rising quicker and softer than the recipe, I didn't have any difficulty or problem. So, I proceeded and completed the baking stage. Then, I clearly saw a problem. The bread didn't rise like the picture of the recipe! Oh-oh.
The top was flat. Actually there was a slight dent. What does it mean? What did I do? Let's see, although I followed the recipe closely, I didn't use a pullman loaf pan like the blog post but a 9.5" x 5.5" pan. Did that different pan size cause the problem? I don't think so, but who knows. Anyway, the inside of the bread looked alright.
For patty melt, I adapted some recipes I glanced online and made up my own recipe. Well, it was very simple - season half a pound of ground grass-fed beef with black pepper, sea salt, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and
Espelette pepper and made two patties, cook them about 3 minutes each side. After cooked the patties, I sautéed the onion in the same pan. Assemble Swiss cheese slices, the patties and onion. Spread soften butter outside of the bread and bake the sandwiches until the cheese melts.
When we have meat, vegetables should be on the side. That's the rule. J knows it. This time I made red wine vinegar coleslaw.
Ok, the cheese melted!
And the bread was deeply browned!
I was very pleased with the result. The savory bread did play a nice role for this particular sandwich. J said he enjoyed his sandwich, too. This project was successful!... until he told me later he would like to have rye bread without dill pickle juice next time. He thought it was a little too strong. I made the uniquely-seasoned bread especially for him who usually likes savory things, but now I know I was wrong! Shocking!
