If we consider the Rueben and the Rachel as sibling sandwiches, then this is a couple variations from a Rachel, which I am hereby dubbing The Pink Rachel. For quick tutorial on the history of the Rueben, go to Max & Louie’s New York Diner, which is in fact in San Antonio, TX. There are some pretty strong opinions as to what is truly a Rueben and what is truly a Rachel. Our working definition of a Rueben is corned beef piled high on marble or pumpernickel rye with sauerkraut, melted with Swiss cheese and Russian dressing (slightly less sweet, slightly spicier version of a Thousand Island dressing). We’ve done a twist on a Rueben in the past which you can read about here. A Rachel is served with roasted turkey piled high with melted Swiss cheese over the top and a creamy coleslaw.

But wait, what about pastrami? I freaking love pastrami and I’m convinced it improves both of these offerings immensely, but it isn’t “original”. I feel there should be a set of sandwiches with Pastrami that are cousins to the Rachel and the Rueben, and I’d like to suggest we call them a Roman or a Rudolph, some Romanian Jewish name that starts with “R” as tribute to the ethnic heritage of pastrami. But that is not what here for today.

Today we’re making a Pink Rachel, which is a dressed up variation of a Rachel, with the key difference being a creamy version of the German sweet sour red cabbage, known as Rotkohl. We add a touch of Rosé wine in our cabbage and the red cabbage turns the mayonnaise a bright pink. Rotkohl isn’t sauerkraut and it isn’t coleslaw so we’re playing with variations on a theme here. We kept the traditional marble rye, toasted first, then piled with a house-smoked turkey.

We smoked the turkey 24 hours in advance, seasoned with ample amounts of garlic powder, salt, lemon thyme, and fresh ground coriander as a hat tip to a pastrami preparation with the clove and black pepper ending up in the red cabbage. (I warned you I love pastrami!) After smoking we wrapped it and refrigerated over night. Then sliced into thick chunks rather than the thin deli slices that have a nasty habit of drying out. This is also an excellent use of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.

We considered a host of options in place of the Swiss cheese and could simply have used any number of excellent baby Swiss options from Wisconsin or Michigan. Instead, we chose to go with Widmer’s Matterhorn Alpine cheddar that recently won a 2023 Best in Class at the US Championship Cheese Contest. They add Alpine cultures to a traditional cheddar approach, then age it in their unique process, which creates a end product that melts easily but brings a tangy punch. Think 2 year aged cheddar texture but a hint of the sour finish of goat cheese.

The rotkohl is mixed 2 parts cabbage to 1 part mayonnaise to enhance the creaminess. We then added Pink Lady apples to add crunch and contrast to our richly-flavored Alpine cheese. All piled onto a marble rye and then griddle-fried until nicely browned like a grilled cheese.

Just like our past variation on the Rueben, or variation on the Rachel can go many additional directions. Adding the rotkohl and then the apple, which is already featured in the rotkohl, is a fun play on the original and brings our sandwich into the Great Lakes Cuisine tradition.