Name: Tremendous Patty Melt
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced; 6 tbsp, divided unsalted butter; 1 tsp, divided kosher salt; 1 lb ground beef, 80/20 chuck; to taste black pepper; 1/2 tsp garlic powder; 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce; 8 thick slices seeded rye bread; 8 slices Swiss cheese, sliced; as needed Dijon mustard (optional)

Tremendous Patty Melt

Prep

10m

Cook

45m

Total

55m

Bigly says

Sit down for this one. The best patty melt I ever had was in a gas station off the interstate outside Albuquerque — true story, the kind of story nobody believes until they see the booth, the booth was duct tape, the menu was a piece of plywood, and the patty melt was a piece of EDIBLE HISTORY. The man behind the counter — guy named Ramón, he didn't speak, he just looked at me, he nodded, he slid the plate across the formica — that man understood the patty melt better than ninety percent of the chefs on television. Not even close.

A patty melt is not a burger. A patty melt is not a grilled cheese. A patty melt is what happens when a burger and a grilled cheese fall in love, they get married, they have a baby, and that baby is BETTER LOOKING THAN BOTH OF THEM. You take seeded rye, real rye with the caraway seeds, you take the GOOD Swiss — not the rubbery little squares wrapped in plastic, that stuff is wallpaper paste with delusions of cheesehood — and you put a thin smashed patty in there with deeply caramelized onions and you grill the whole construction in butter until it's GOLDEN. BROWN. CRISPY. That's the trifecta. Most short-order cooks have never heard of the trifecta. A scandal.

And the onions — this is where everybody, EVERYBODY, gets it wrong — the onions are slow-cooked. Forty minutes minimum. Do not rush the onions. You rush the onions, you end up with raw chewy little ribbons of regret inside a sandwich, and then you stand there blinking at your plate wondering where the magic went. The magic walked out the door because you didn't respect the onions. The neighbor who taught me this lived to a hundred and two. Could be a coincidence. Probably not. The patty melt rewards the patient. Plain and simple.

Ingredients

2 largeyellow onions, thinly sliced(thin, not chunky, we're not making a stir fry)
6 tbsp, dividedunsalted butter
1 tsp, dividedkosher salt
1 lbground beef, 80/20 chuck
to tasteblack pepper
1/2 tspgarlic powder
1 tspWorcestershire sauce
8 thick slicesseeded rye bread(real rye, with the caraway, none of this 'marble rye' nonsense)
8 slicesSwiss cheese, sliced
as neededDijon mustard (optional)

Steps

1
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the sliced onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir to coat.
2
Cook the onions, stirring every few minutes, for 35-40 minutes until deeply golden brown and jammy. If they start to scorch, drop the heat and add a splash of water. Set aside.
3
Divide the beef into 4 loose 4-ounce portions. Season each with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a few drops of Worcestershire.
4
Heat a clean cast iron skillet over high heat. Place a portion of beef in the pan and immediately smash it with a sturdy spatula into a thin patty the size of the bread.
5
Cook 90 seconds until the bottom is deeply crusted. Flip, cook 30 more seconds, then transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining beef.
6
Wipe out the skillet and reduce heat to medium. Butter one side of each slice of rye bread with the remaining butter.
7
Build each sandwich in the pan, buttered side down: bread, slice of Swiss, patty, a heap of caramelized onions, another slice of Swiss, top slice of bread buttered side up.
8
Cook 3-4 minutes per side, pressing gently with the spatula, until the bread is deeply golden and the cheese is fully melted. Lower the heat if the bread browns faster than the cheese melts.
9
Transfer to a cutting board, rest 1 minute, slice on the diagonal, and serve with Dijon on the side.

One more thing

You cut that thing on the diagonal — always the diagonal, never straight across, straight across is amateur hour, straight across is what the chain restaurants do and you can TASTE the lack of ambition — and you watch the cheese pull, you watch the onions glisten, you watch your family go quiet at the table because they cannot believe what is happening to them. That silence is the highest compliment a cook can receive. That silence is worth more than any award. And you got it from a sandwich. From a SANDWICH. Tell your friends.