Ya gotta eat them after they’ve fed for the full flavor experience.
Herewith, finally, for your inspection and approval, is the Wolfpup Sandwich, inspired by – but not at all the same as – the Reuben!
It’s Montreal smoked meat on a toasted onion bun with sauerkraut, but with the following distinctions.
The two halves of onion bun are toasted on a crepe pan, so that the inside gets toasted while the outside just gets warm and stays soft.
The sauerkraut is fried, so that most of the moisture evaporates and it gets slightly browned. This is similar to sauteeing onions. I use a hot non-stick pan with a small amount of olive oil.
The smoked meat is liberally anointed with Dijon mustard. No cheese of any kind is involved.
This was so good that I’m glad I pre-made a batch of fried sauerkraut. But I believe a refinement is in order to create the Wolfpup Sandwich V2.0 which will finally catch the world by storm! Either less Dijon or less sauerkraut, and I’m gonna go with less sauerkraut, mainly using it as a condiment rather than a partner to the smoked meat.
What exactly is this? Is it analogous to anything in the lower 48?
I heartily endorse the frying of sauerkraut. Till all the liquid goes away and some of the edges get brown and crispy. My mother used to do this. It turns sauerkraut into something different and special.
Montreal smoked meat is the food of the gods. The closest you can come in the lower 48 is New York pastrami, but even that only hits close, but not quite.
Did we have the same mother? Are you the sister I never I knew I had? 
(Notice in the pic the sauerkraut is properly browned, not pasty white!)
It is, indeed. @ThelmaLou This Wiki article talks about it a bit. Like New York style pastrami, it starts with beef brisket but is seasoned and cured differently. It originated with early 20th century Jewish delis in Montreal, from whence also comes the world’s best chopped liver (specifically, from Moishe’s). Early 20th century immigrants who settled in Montreal, in general, established delis, markets, and restaurants that somehow synergistically merged with the French love of food to make Montreal Canada’s food Mecca.
Maybe… Are your maternal grandparents from the Old Country? As an only child, I’d like to have a big, cuddly dog as a brother.
Damn. I wonder if I will ever get to go there? 
Speaking of the food of the Gods from Montreal:
Karthein’s Sauerkraut
https://www.belandorganicfoods.com/en/organic-products/kartheins/organic-sauerkraut/
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away at the local HEB FLAGSHIP Central Market (Hey, Austinites, it started in San Antonio, okay? Got that??) I bought a jar of sauerkraut. It was the best sauerkraut I ever tasted in my whole life. Over a couple of days I ate a whole jar. Toward the end I was eating it right out of the jar. It wasn’t just the taste-- there was something addictive about it. When you stopped, you just had to have more.
I went back to the store and bought another jar. I was a happy person. After a few days, I went back to get another jar, and there weren’t any more. I asked the deli manager when they would be getting some in and he said they wouldn’t. WHAT?? Turns out that one shipment was a mistake. It had wound up at Central Market because of a shipping error. No more Karthein’s at Central Market. (Here cue Ricardo Montalban’s anguished, enraged cry…) I googled all over. I even phoned the company in Montreal. They don’t ship to where I live. No more Karthein’s in Texas. Ever.
Their website says they sell Karthein’s at Atlantic Superstores, Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstores, Save-on-Foods, Your Independent Grocer and Zehrs in Canada. We don’t have any of those, and if we did, HEB would have driven them out of town like they did all other grocery competitors except Wal-Mart.
Maybe some day I will find another jar… in a field… next to a grazing unicorn. 
(Never got to use that emoji before.)
I even took a picture of the jar to help me in my quest.
@wolfpup Do you have access to this magical nectar of the Gods? Was it by any chance Karthein’s that you put on that sandwich? Go ahead, tell me, I can take it. I just bought four boxes of kleenex at HEB this morning if I get too emotional…
ETA: This all happened in 2010.
I think i should try frying sauerkraut. I think the soggy mess it makes of the sandwich may be why i don’t care for it.
That wasn’t what I used, but thanks for the suggestion. It turns out that the Loblaws chain does carry Karthein’s but I don’t know if any of the local stores will necessarily have it. It’s way more expensive than others so must have something going for it. I’m definitely getting some if I can find it. As you can see, the label design is different from what you posted but it appears to be the same stuff. (FYI, Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstores, Zehrs, and some others are all part of the Loblaws chain and carry more or less the same products).
The sauerkraut I used was Kühne, a German import. They had a type with ingredients listed as “white cabbage, salt” and another listed as “white cabbage, white wine, salt” which is what I used. Karthein’s is made from green cabbage, which is technically a different type of cabbage. White cabbage, also called Dutch cabbage, is a variety with paler leaves and quite possibly a different taste.
Dying to hear what you think.
Ooh, it’s delicious! It’s like the difference between boiled cabbage and seared cabbage. Squeeze out what liquid you can first and it’ll go faster. You can also give it a quick rinse first.
On the subject of Montreal smoked meat, I picked up 400 grams the other day (just slightly short of a pound). I was going to ask them if it was fresh, but I could see from the big hunk they put into the meat slicer that it was almost a full piece that they had just started slicing.
This is what it looks like, well seasoned, studded with peppercorns, and well smoked! 
In deli restaurants it’s generally kept warm and hand sliced, but when it’s cold machine slicing works fine. When I make sandwiches at home, I just microwave the slices in a dish, which basically steams it and is a fine way of heating smoked meat.
Damn. I need to put “food pilgrimage to Montreal” on my bucket list.
Aw, @wolfpup, you had to post that, didn’t you? Now, I want a Montreal smoked meat on rye. Or maybe heaping on a kaiser. With Dijon or deli mustard. Little too late to go get any right now, but great photo. Thanks!
Weren’t we talking capers earlier in the thread? I spotted some on a recent trip to the supermarket, so I thought I’d give then a try. Not sure what to do with them, but I’m getting lots of ideas from online resources. Anyway, I figured I’d try them straight. Interesting flavour—not quite sure how to describe it, but I can see how they would go well in certain things.
I typically think of capers as a condiment for smoked or marinated salmon. The last time I had capers on hand I was on a kick with marinated salmon from IKEA of all places (I usually prefer smoked) which they don’t seem to have any more, along with what I believe was some type of mustard sauce that they also don’t have any more.
No matter. Sometime when the weather is nicer I’ll make a pilgrimage to Pusateri’s for their inimitable house smoked salmon. Contrary to speculation that they’d closed down their central kitchen (or maybe they just moved it in-store) they still have amazing prepared foods and still make their incredible Semplice pasta sauce, though I didn’t see the convenient smaller jars on their website, just the roughly quart-sized ones.
I recommend beginning your “caper” crusade with a Smoked Salmon Bagel loaded with capers and cream cheese. Once you’ve fallen head over heels for that briny goodness, kick things up a notch by swapping out the salmon (or lox) for some mouthwatering smoked whitefish salad (a fishy masterpiece worthy of its own theme music.). Then you can tackle the Larry David Sandwich (despite Larry’s objection). Your taste buds will thank you.
Good Lord, that looks good. I do like a bagel with lox and cream cheese, so that is definitely something to try. Thanks for the idea!
Both of those sandwiches look wonderful, but I question the bagel slices top and bottom. Seems difficult to eat. I would have made them as two open-faced sandwiches on the two halves. Much more practical, I would think. Whenever I have a bagel, even with something as simple as Boursin cheese or even just buttered, I always eat the two halves separately.
Or I would have made them as a conventional sandwich, but used something like a soft toasted onion bun instead of a bagel.
I’m on your wavelength. I typically slap toppings on each half of a bagel like they’re two separate entities. Same goes for open-face turkey and grilled cheese: they’re basically two-for-the-price-of-one taste explosions, and my taste buds are always looking for a good bargain.
Indeed. One of my morning pleasures is a good cup of coffee and a toasted bagel with Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs cheese (if you haven’t had it, it’s kind of a rich French cream cheese). Not only do I slather it on both halves of the bagel, I then cut each one in half crosswise – makes it easier to bite into.
Well, my closest supermarket didn’t have Karthein’s, and with a winter storm coming I was anxious to get a few groceries and get the hell home again. Pusateri’s (which is now fairly far from me) is the sort of store where one might find more exotic foods (hey, they have white and black truffles in season at the deli counter, and real Japanese Wagyu beef at the butcher counter!) but from checking their website apparently sauerkraut is not considered sufficiently hoity-toity for them to carry any at all! But there are numerous other supermarkets from your list in the general area so I’ll keep looking, but may have to go farther afield.
We do have that here. At HEB. So not total barbarians.
Don’t go out in a blizzard looking for the sauerkraut. I wouldn’t want them to find your frozen body clutching a jar of Karthein’s. 