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Cuban Black Beans
Pete Wells, Eduardo Machado, Michael Domitrovich
1670 ratings with an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars
1,670
45 minutes
Updated Feb. 6, 2024
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Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat, then add the onions and rosemary. Season with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often, until the onions get a nice dark caramel color, about 20 minutes. Fish out the rosemary.
While the onions cook, spread one side of each slice of rye with softened butter from corner to corner. Mix the mustard and mayonnaise in a small bowl and reserve.
Make the beef patties by splitting the meat in half, then patting each half between 2 pieces of wax or parchment paper until it’s thin. Each patty should be slightly bigger than the bread so when it shrinks down you’ve got meat in every bite. Season the patties with lots of salt and pepper on both sides, as if they were steaks.
Put the bread on a hot griddle, butter sides down, and divide the cheese among all 4 pieces. Put the meat on the griddle. (You can use two skillets set over high heat if you don’t have a griddle.) Smash the patties with a spatula. When they’re browned, 1 to 3 minutes, flip the patties and spread the onions over the meat. Sizzle them for a minute or 2 to brown the underside. Meanwhile, spread the Dijon-mayonnaise over the melted cheese.
Put each patty on a slice of bread and make sandwiches by topping with the other slices. Serve immediately, with pickles.
This works well with cheddar too, for those who don’t like Swiss. Importantly, put the finished sandwich on the grill with some weight on top just before serving. This brings the cheese, onions and patties together in a magnificent way!
Rye bread is traditional
I made this with Beyond Beef. It was excellent!
How does the cheese cook in this recipe? Put the bread on the skillet and distribute the cheese, check. But cheese sitting on bread in an open skillet doesn’t melt before the bread burns does it? Is the cheese supposed to be melted? When does that happen?
The French sell dijonaise, already mixed and quite good.
Hold the mustard and hold the mayo… come to think of it hold the rosemary too… now it’s perfect
The trouble with a patty melt is the rye bread. It overwhelms the taste of the beef. A patty melt made with a good white bread, like sourdough, is food for the gods, and so is a good Reuben, made with corned beef that can stand up to the rye.
I have been using Durkee Famous Sauce on (Beyond Meat) sausage dogs because I was seeking more bite than the Dijon mustard had. I plan to use it for this recipe also, substituting a veggie burger. No need to mix mayo with it, as it already has mayo consistency.
I’ve made this using Gruyère cheese, which melts much faster than swiss or cheddar. Or, you can use a combination Gruyère and cheddar cheese - check your grocers’ cheese section for this.
During the recent Icemageddon, I could not leave my home for 9 days. I have never liked patty melts, but now I had time, and a day-old loaf of Cuban bread and some very good ground beef I needed to use. Other change was homemade Kewpie mayo. I used a panini grill to squash and pre-grill my bread, then used a Zojirushi indoor electric grill to cook the sandwich. I was hosting a couple who did not have power at home, and they said this was the best patty melt they ever tasted!
Recipe says rye which is traditional.
As for the cheese..."Coopers Sharp White American"... only way to go Instead of butter on the outside of the rye bread, use Hellman's mayonnaise Far less greasy
This recipe made me nostalgic for the Friendly's version, my favorite from childhood. And I shouldn't read these articles before breakfast.
Rye bread is traditional - look for a loaf that will stand up to the job but with slices that aren’t overly thick. A now defunct Dallas Texas restaurant added an over easy egg and grilled jalapeño to their patty melt and it really was an amazing addition. (Fresh grilled jalapeños are infernal level hot, whole grilled pickled jalapeños slightly sweeten and aren’t as hot.)
ridiculously good. perfect sauce amount and perfect amount of rosemary. a little too much meat per sandwich, would probably do an oz or two less next time but really tasty overall.
We loved this. It stood the test of a proper party melt. I didn’t think it needed the mayo/mustard. It just added more fat. And it was deliciously perfect without.
Just ok, nothing special, but my family fought over it.
Made with ground turkey because we can't eat beef. Really good! Love the rosemary caramelized onions.
I just made a big batch of caramelized onions using the slow cooker method. Some will go into the patty melts for Super Bowl supper. The rest will be frozen for other winter meals.
Absolutely delicious! Market bakery was out of rye so I used pumpernickel, turned out fantastic. The rosemary onions are wonderful. So good!
How does the cheese cook in this recipe? Put the bread on the skillet and distribute the cheese, check. But cheese sitting on bread in an open skillet doesn’t melt before the bread burns does it? Is the cheese supposed to be melted? When does that happen?
The cheese melts just like it does in a grilled cheese sandwich.
The big issue I had with the recipe as written is the amount of ground beef. The pattie in a pattie melt should not dominate, but this recipe calls for so much ground beef (3/4 of a lb.) for two melts that you end up with a cheeseburger on bread. And the result of the recipe as written is quite bland. What to do? Substitute some sharp cheddar or gruyere for the swiss? Or maybe just find another recipe that will give us the pattie melt we all know and love.
I made a patty melt this evening, and ended up wishing I had included Dijon.
Please mention that the patty melt treatment works just as well with a bacon, egg, cheese-- made scrumptious on sourdough or rye
Please mention that without a patty it's no longer a patty melt!
I used smoked Gouda instead of Swiss.
Made this, and it was wonderful, just as is. I think next time I’ll put the buttered bread on low heat, though, because it almost burned. Thanks for a great recipe.
Being from Europe, can annyone tell me whats the difference between a patty melt and a smash burger?
A patty melt is a grilled sandwich on rye bread with Swiss cheese and caramelized onions. A smash burger is a flattened hamburger, with or without cheese, on a standard bun, served with the usual condiments (lettuce, tomato, raw onion). If you compare photos of the two, you'll easily see the difference.
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