Yesterday was a  long day of corned beef prep for a function today.  After trimming and slicing the cooked corned beef for what seemed like hours, I had a large pile of scraps. Usually, we’d probably save this for hash, but one of my cooks had another idea.

Throughout the day, we threw ideas back and forth.  At lunch we were talking about brandade, a dish made with salt cod and mashed potatoes.  I’ve had it served as a fritter before, and thought this was a good starting point.  Obviously, you have the classic Reuben.  Why not combine them? At the end of service last night we saved the red skin mashed potatoes.

Today we combined the potatoes, an egg, the shredded corned beef scaps, drained sauerkraut and some shredded Swiss cheese.  We coated them in flour and dipped them in a beer batter made with Flying Dog Lucky SOB Irish Red Ale.. We fried them and served them with a dip made by mixing Thousand Island dressing and the juice from the sauerkraut.

This was a quick and dirty test for the cooks. I’m not sure they’ll ever see light of day on a menu, but they we’re so good.  Maybe we could use rye flour with crushed caraway four the flour coating and beer batter.

They’re big, ugly and a work in progress. But it’s a starting point.

Edit 3/2016: In the 3 years since I originally wrote this post, I’ve refined the recipe and put it on the menu for St Patrick’s Day. It’s a huge seller, and I’ve considered running it more frequently. 

Reuben Fritter

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Chris Spear

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