Me too. If there’s a choice between a burger and a patty melt, I go for the patty melt. (Unless there’s a chili size on the menu.) In California the melts were as described in the OP and reiterated by me and others. In Seattle I’ve encountered patty melts on sourdough, and containing 1000 Island dressing.
I had a patty melt in Bellingham a couple/few weeks ago. It was made in the mandatory way… Except they used one of those industrial, frozen, pre-formed patties that have a weird texture and no flavour. Since this was a diner, I expected better. The onion rings were good though. (I put mustard on my onion rings, BTW.)
I really need to stop reading these threads on an empty stomach. All I can think of now is a patty melt. I’m gonna break down and make a trip to the grocery store at lunchtime. My waistline will not thank me.
Ya know, it looks like the Serious Eats guy is also a fan of Swiss on his patty melt, but ends up splitting the difference in the end with his “ultimate patty melt recipe,” using both that and American. I may have to try this Swiss variation after all, as J. Kenji López-Alt rarely steers me wrong.
OK, I’ll give it a try, but next time. I only ended up buying deli American for today. And the store, with an entire aisle devoted to bread, only has one brand of rye, S Rosen’s (local company, which actually is good), and no marble rye. Goddammit, does no one eat rye anymore?
OK, after mulling the OP over some more, because I’m obsessive about this kind of stuff, you can have a patty melt without grilled onions if you don’t like them, but that is a custom request. The default for me is they are on there. I would be disappointed to order a patty melt and find out they come without the onions because, as I intimated above, the beauty of this dish to me is that combo of cheese + patty + caramelized onions + rye. Now, I may be slightly perturbed if the bread is sourdough. I mean, it’s acceptable, but it’s not the default and should be pointed out. And type of cheese, well, as long as it’s all nice and gooey, I don’t care that much. But lack of onions as a default would be breaking the definition for me.
I have spent way too much mental time on this question and not enough actually making myself one for lunch. Off I go…
I’ve had patty melts with swiss or American and both are fine but I’ve never had one with both but it sounds good. Also the cheese has to be melted on the patty.
For me the definition of a patty melt is burger, cheese, grilled onion on grilled rye bread. Type of cheese could be cheddar, Swiss or American. Can have 1000 Island dressing on it by the most extreme definition. Anything more than that and it ain’t a patty melt.
It was a good show. About a group of grim reapers. They meet each morning at Der Waffle House to get their daily assignments from the cook. He’s not THE cook. He had reaped the cook-guy* he is talking to in the kitchen and volunteered to take over for a couple of days until they got a new cook.
I think it’s on Netflix.
*That’s why from the waitress’ perspective he is talking to no-one. Only the reapers can see the ghosts.
Huh, looking online, it seems there are a number of sites that claim Swiss is, indeed, the traditional cheese for a patty melt. Huh. Never seen one like that around here. (Nobody seems to argue about caramelized onions, though.) And some do mention the Thousand Island on the side. Hmm. I just can’t imagine serving an already butter-and-fat laden sandwich which a mayo-based dressing. Talk about gilding the lily. We need contrast, people, contrast!
While the authentic version needs rye (or maybe sourdough), I’m okay with someone at home just making a regular grilled cheese with a patty inside and calling it a patty melt. Onions shouldn’t be optional, but I guess they are in that variety.
What makes it a patty melt is grilled bread, a hamburger patty, and melted cheese. What makes it a good patty melt is the onions and the right kind of bread (rye is ideal, but sourdough would also work).
It’s a burger served on pieces of toasted bread rather than a bun. That’s it. I’ve never had one served on rye or with grilled onions. Y’all be making rules up.
I have to agree with my esteemed colleague silenus here. American food afficianado Ed Levine chimes in on Serious Eats re: the patty melt.
What poor, backward part of the country are you in where patty melts come neither with griddled onions nor on rye bread? Is there a foundation I can donate to to help?
