St. Patrick's Day Addendum: The Reuben Burger

This is what a reuben is supposed to look like.
Image by Kimberly VardemanYesterday, Angela pointed out the absurdity of a Catholic holiday that celebrates extreme Irish stereotypes. I never notice anyone who is offended by the stereotyping, though. I find this odd.

Corned beef and cabbage seems to be the quintessential St. Patrick's Day dish. My preferred form of corned beef and cabbage is the reuben sandwich. There are some variations to the reuben, but the form I usually see it in is sliced corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and Thousand Island dressing on rye bread.

I really, really like reubens. When I got the food grinder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer, the first thing I made with it was reuben burgers.

Why not? Reubens: great. Burgers: great. The two aren't that different. Shouldn't it be possible to combine them?

So, I took a corned beef brisket and ran it through the grinder. I made ground corned beef patties, mixing in a bit of the Thousand Island. Topped with more dressing, sauerkraut, and gruyere...

The resulting meal was about as weird as it sounds.

It certainly wasn't bad, but when you bite into a burger, there are certain expectations. This broke most of them. The primary problem was that the burger itself was a bit too mushy. Corned beef isn't really amenable to grinding. Also, the corned beef taste was a bit overpowering.

Is there a way to make a reuben burger? Maybe. If I try this again, I will probably use about 1/4 to 1/3 ground corned beef with the remainder being regular ground beef.

Not every experiment is a success, but those that aren't should be learning experiences.