4 Great Turkey Sandwiches For All Those Thanksgiving Leftovers
I love Thanksgiving. It's great as a day devoted to giving thanks, but also—I’m a turkey guy.
I love turkey and turkey leftovers, particularly sandwiches. Over the course of the weekend, I’ll crave a few quiet minutes to savor a turkey sandwich for lunch, either hot or cold, a cup of coffee and a ridiculously large piece of pie for dessert. I might even bring the lunch down to the shop, pull up a seat at my workbench, turn on the radio, and feast undisturbed.
I’m something of a connoisseur of the humble turkey sandwich, in order of preference, here are my favorites:
The Hot Brown
Made famous by The Brown hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, the Hot Brown open-face sandwich is the ultimate in high-calorie comfort food. Having visited Louisville over the years to attend the Green Industries Expo, I’ve had the Hot Brown at a number of other restaurants in town and a few other places that serve it around the country, but if you want the real thing, go to the Brown. It’s the headwaters of turkey sandwich paradise:
Almost as mandatory is to have a slab of Derby Pie for dessert. Named after the Kentucky Derby, of course. Pecans, chocolate, what’s not to like?
Married Bliss
My wife makes this one: turkey, corned beef, cheddar cheese, thinly sliced cucumber; mustard or mayo is your call. Served on a grainy wheat bread of some kind. Side of cranberry. Wunderbar!
The Shebang
Just like they make it at the diner: two thick slices of white bread, separated by a generous spoonful of stuffing, and then a heap of white meat turkey on top of that. Of course, the entire shebang must be covered with turkey gravy.
Also, I know for a fact that somewhere in federal law, it’s required that you also serve this with mashed potatoes, and the potatoes are required to be piping hot and topped with a large pat of butter, volcano style. Turkey protocol requires that the gravy pool at the volcano’s base. Leftover pie is also a federal requirement, I believe, but don’t quote me on that.
The Reporter
Decades ago, as a small-town newspaper reporter working on the Friday after Thanksgiving, my boss (a guy old enough to be my father) brought in a platter of this World War II era delicacy: turkey meat on Wonder Bread with butter. Some of the sandwiches had stuffing, others had stuffing and cranberry. It was a sort of your-choice platter, a bit like a pizza with three different toppings. Today, many of us can’t imagine a sandwich with butter. Mayo and mustard rule the sandwich roost, it seems. But back in the day, butter was the all-purpose spread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
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