I fucking love reuben sandwiches.
But I hate how they have turned into this gross, sloppy pile of meat with a sprinkling of sauerkraut.
The appeal of the reuben, for me, is that no other sandwich has sauerkraut on it. I am a sauerkraut fiend. I will eat a bowl of sauerkraut straight up. When I order a reuben, I want to have a very significant amount of noticeable sauerkraut. I genuinely don't give a shit about the meat on the sandwich.
And I think the corned beef is the worse part of the reuben. Think about it. Many restaurants have reuben sandwiches. It is uncommon for restaurants (other than Jewish delis) to have corned beef sandwiches that are NOT reubens. It is common for restaurants to replace the corned beef with pastrami or turkey. But you cannot reasonably serve a reuben without sauerkraut. If you serve it with something like coleslaw it becomes a totally different sandwich with a different name (that is still delicious). The defining feature of the reuben is the sauerkraut.
What I want out of a reuben is a minimal amount of meat. Like one layer. I genuinely do not care what kind of meat it is. And then a BIG HONKING PILE of the most sour sauerkraut you can possibly get, that has been well-drained.
