With all of the hard times traditional Jewish delicatessens are facing, it’s good to read this about Katz’s in New York City:
The pickle barrels no longer line Ludlow Street (they now occupy a storage room inside Katz’s). The corned beef and the pastrami are still cured the same way they always were, using airtight barrels and a salt solution with a formula that remains a secret (as do the formulas for the wood chips in the smokehouse where the pastrami is cured and the rub that is applied to it).
Still making a good pastrami sammich! And then comes the darkness (boldface mine):
But Katz’s has served Reubens for a decade — corned beef, sauerkraut, homemade Russian dressing and melted Swiss cheese. Reubens have become best-sellers at Katz’s, but when Alan Dell was young, it was unthinkable that a Jewish deli would serve meat and cheese together.
Oy. Definitely not kosher.
As a gentile who loves Reuben sandwiches, I feel like I should apologise.
I like Reuben sandwiches. They are simple and straightforward. When I go to a new resturant which has Reubens on the menu. I have one and judge the resturant according to its goodness. Fortunately, the best I have had (other than some I made myself) are made at a little resturant just down the road. I don’t think I’ve ever had one at Katz’s Deli.
It’s pre-Kosher. The milk-meat thing didn’t come in until after the Babylonian captivity. Moses would have loved a good Reuben.
You think kosher keeping Jews don’t have an occasional BLT? It’s a sin, that’s all. I would make a bargain with YAHWEH: I’ll have Reuben, so I won’t take his name in vain. It balances out.
The fact that bacon tastes as good as it does is all the proof I need that the Abrahamic god doesn’t exist – or he is a cruel madman if he does.