Wednesday, January 13, 2010

FriscoMelts!

Hey long time no see!

I've been off being lazy and totally addicted to Cafe World on Facebook. Not a lot of actual cooking, no blogging, not blog reading, just playing Cafe World!

But I'm back... still addicted to Cafe World, but also finally doing some actual cooking too!

Way back before Thanksgiving I made Eggnog French Toast. Remember that? It was wicked good!

Anyway... when I made that, I bought a big loaf of Texas Toast bread, but only used about half of it.

I asked Jon if he had any suggestions on what to do with the rest. He said I should make Frisco Melts, ya know... like they have at Steak & Shake. It was really weird, because I was kinda thinking the same thing. It was weird because Frisco Melts are on regular sourdough bread... not big thick square white bread. So it was a little odd that we both had the same thought. But obviously if we both had the same thought, Frisco Melts had been destined to be in our future.

So the first thing I had to do was find a recipe for that awesome sauce on the Frisco Melts.

Online I found that there are mainly 3 variations of it. So I made all three to decide which one we liked best. However, we were split, but one was a definite NO.

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Sauce #1 (top of picture)
2 parts thousand island dressing
1 part french dressing

Sauce #2 (on left)
2 parts thousand island
1 part ketchup

Sauce #3 (on right)
1/4 C mayo
1 TBLS + 1 tsp ketchup
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pickle relish

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I'll just tell you right now, Sauce #3 was definitely NOT it.

Tawny and I thought that Sauce #1 was right on. Jon thought Sauce #2 tasted more like the actual sauce. So, Sauce #3 got scraped into the trash and I just used both sauces. Tawny, Lilly & I had #1 and Jon had #2. Bob had no interest in a Frisco Melt and fended for himself that night. (or FFY as we call it in our house!)

These are insanely easy to make.

Frisco Melts at Home
Ground beef
Texas toast, 2 pieces per sandwich
American cheese, 2 slices per sandwich
Swiss cheese, 1 slice per sandwich
Butter
Frisco Sauce of your choice (seriously #1 is the best!)

The hardest part is making the burgers thin enough. Those are really skinny patties.

Just plain old ground beef (ok, not old)
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(Yikes... sorry that's fuzzy!)

You need to make two skinny patties for each sandwich that you're making

Fry 'em up.
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While those are cooking, lightly butter both side of all of the pieces of bread and toast them in a skillet.

Oh and be sure your skillet isn't too hot, you want all of the cheese to melt, without burning the bread.

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When first side is toasted to golden brown turn them over.
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(Pictures here change from making two sandwiches to making one, because these came out better!)

Spread the sauce of your choice on the toasted side.
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Cover the sauce with a slice of American Cheese
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Now place a cooked hamburger patty on one of the toasts.
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Cover the hamburger patty with a slice of Swiss cheese.
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Top the Swiss cheese with another hamburger patty.
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Then flip the other toast on top of the last patty (cheese side in)
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It's not very pretty... but it tasted perfect!
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You can see that little layer of Swiss in the middle!
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These were great!

I just made them again a couple days ago. I decided that I'd use sourdough bread this time, to make them even more like the original. But I have to say, the Texas toast stands up to this sandwich much better than regular sourdough.

Also Bob had a friend over, so I had him taste both sauces and he agreed that #1 tasted most like Steak & Shake!

If you love Patty Melts... you definitely need to try this!

15 comments:

Bob said...

I do love patty melts. That looks frigging awesome. I've never been to a steak & shake, are they a Penn thing?

teresa said...

those look out of this world delicious! i love the cheese!

Spryte said...

Bob... I think Steak & Shake is kinda below New England to the middle of the country. I know it's not in MA or CA!

tamilyn said...

Glad you are back! I'm addicted to Cafe World too :)

These look really good. We don't have Steak and Shake around these parts, but I'll just take your recommendation on sauce 1!

Shane T. Wingerd said...

Yay!!! Welcome back!! And with something as tasty looking as ever. :) Yeah, I am definitely hungry now..

Donna-FFW said...

Nice to see you back.. Happy New Year!! These look delicious, I love patty melts, so Im sure Id devour this!

Michele said...

We don't have those restaurants here in NJ so I wan't sure what you were referring to. Basically it's a burger on bread instead of a bun with a special sauce, right? It looks pretty darn good to be!

Patti T. said...

Good to see you back Spryte. I had no idea what a Frisco Melt was and when I was reading about the sauce I guessed it was going to be like a Big Mac, I was wrong! Your sandwich looks very tasty, especially for us cheese lovers. Great recipe.

Ingrid_3Bs said...

One of the twins and my daughter loves those melts. They order them whenever we got to steak n shake.

I think that's funny about being addicted to that game.
~ingrid

rebekah said...

ZOMG! Cafe World!!!! How freaking fun and addicting is it?!

mmm patty melts.

The Moon Muse said...

Those look so good and hearty!

Lids said...

Made these last night based on what I remembered. Forgot to put the cheese on the other side of the toast and forgot the 2 to 1 ratio for sauce one (ratio was 1 to 1). Even so these came out awesome and my husband loved them. Definitely will be making them again real soon.

Thanks for sharing :D

Spryte said...

Lids I'm glad you liked them!

angelinthekitchen said...

I've never heard of Cafe World. Or Frisco melts. Both sound addictive! I definitely plan to try the melts, but I should probably avoide checking into Cafe World ...

Unknown said...

I am a patty melt hound!! love love love them. When I was preg. I'd make dinner for everything else and make myself a patty melt (5 nights out of 7). these friscomelts look awesome! Now I just need to see if I can find the texas toast (I've only seen them in the freezer section?)