Saratoga Spoon for dipping Saratoga (potato) Chips, available from Replacements, inc.
Elizabeth Weil wrote an arresting culinary origins story a few years ago which was published in Saveur. It seems that Weil’s grandfather invented the Reuben Sandwich in the 1920s when he oversaw the kitchen at the Blackstone Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. Some poker players needed a late night snack and he came up with a sauerkraut-swiss cheese-corned beef-thousand island dressing combo and served it to a guy whose name, of course, was Reuben. Guess what, Reuben loved it and it soon became a menu staple.
Weil’s article references an earlier, shorter origin story published in the New York Times in 2013. The NYT got a number of letters in response to that piece including one from food historian Andrew Smith, which insisted in a rather strident way (the actual letter from Smith is not available; the link in the Saveur article actually leads to Weil’s original piece) that no, the Reuben was invented in New York in a deli run by a guy named, you guessed it, Reuben.
Weil had heard this before (she mentions the NYC theory in her article) and let it pass. But Smith was itching for a fight. He began researching old menus and cookbooks for references that would point to a New York origin. While not letting his foot off the gas, he did acknowledge over time (there were lots of exchanges between Smith and Weil) that the NYC Reuben had actually been made with coleslaw, not sauerkraut, which would make it a completely different animal; as a side note we will point out that heated coleslaw in a griddled sandwich sounds hurl-inducing. But the touchstone was the old menus; Smith challenged her to come up with a Nebraska menu listing a Reuben sandwich prior to 1941, the earliest recorded mention he could find in his New York mecca.
Which Weil, or rather her husband Dan, did. The Nebraska State Historical Society produced a menu from the Blackstone Hotel’s coffee shop in 1937 which included the Reuben and soon after, the Douglas County Historical Society came up with an even earlier menu. Presented with incontrovertible evidence, Smith graciously conceded defeat.
This passion for culinary origins and arguing about the past reminds us of the story of the origin of Guss’ Pickle on the Lower East Side, which unfolded right here on Burnt My Fingers a dozen years ago. To abbreviate, one individual bought the historic Guss’ pickle store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan but another individual acquired the name, which had never been trademarked. She moved the pickle shop to a new location in Brooklyn, then they went to war. Please do read through the many comments which demonstrate the battle had by no means ended and I expect continues to this day.
Also, let’s talk about the origin of potato chips! Anyone who lives in my vicinity knows they were invented right here in upstate New York, at a resort alongside Saratoga Lake. Doubters have challenged this claim including Jim Leff, the founder of Chowhound and now a friendly freelance curmudgeon. To him and other skeptics I have proof that is even better than historical menus: the Saratoga Spoon. This is a broad spoon, perfect for scooping up potato chips by those too genteel to use their fingers, which was standard in sterling flatware sets in the 1870s. Local antiquities dealer Mark Lawson has a nice story on the chips and the scooper here.
In the future, food historians may look for the culinary origins of Thanksgiving Stuffing Pudding or Chili Crisp Ice Cream and find them right here. Or, maybe not.
