The Sausage Hero -- Reinventing "Chunky Wiener Hero" Sandwiches -- Vintage Cookbook #TBT

The Nokomis Hospital Auxiliary Cook Book is one of that subspecies of once very prevalent fundraising community cookbooks -- a number of which we have looked at over the months here at The Left Chapter and the earnestness and reflection of time and place of which I really love.

This one was put together, as is the norm, by submissions from the community and was to raise money for a hospital in Nokomis, Saskatchewan. It was published in 1980.

It has lots of recipes worth a look and the whole cookbook is very charming. As is always the case with cookbooks of this type the recipes vary greatly in quality. But today I wanted to reinvent one that was, to be honest, not one that I would have ever made in its original form!

This is a recipe for "Chunky Wiener Heroes". It was conceived as a triple-decker sandwich using hot dogs and, among other things, a mustard-margarine mixture!

While this recipe is very dated, the idea of a triple-decker sausage (as opposed to hot dog) sandwich with cheese and a sauce did appeal me. I decided to reinvent the recipe while keeping these aspects.

Our Sausage Hero Sandwich starts with sausage that has already been cooked. I would suggest using Hot Italian Style (which I did) or a German Bratwurst Style sausage.

You can prepare the sausage anyway you want, but for reasons that will become clear, I would suggest making them as I did in a previous Left Chapter recipe, Slow Cooker Beer and Sauerkraut Sausages.

For the sandwich bread we are going to replace the French Bread (which would have been very hard to cut in three as the original recipe suggests anyway!) with three toasted slices of rye bread. Make sure to toast the bread as otherwise the bread will become soggy (and the toasting replaces the oven portion of the original).

In place of the (awful) mustard-margarine blend, we will use instead a blend of hot mustard and mayonnaise. You want one part hot mustard for each two parts mayo stirred thoroughly to make this sauce. For the mustard you can use Coleman's or one of any number of European ones. I used a Polish style one I bought at a local deli.

Coat the first piece of bread with the sauce and then place the cooked sausage on top cut in half lengthwise. On my sandwich I managed to fit three slices of sausage.

On top of this layer place another slice of rye. Top this slice with Swiss Cheese and cover the cheese with a thick layer of sauerkraut. You can use fresh deli bought sauerkraut, sauerkraut from a jar or, if you made the recipe I linked to above, the incredibly flavorful kraut you get from slow cooking it with beer, seasonings and the sausages themselves!

Top with another slice of the toasted rye, slice in half, and serve with ice cold beer!

It is an absolutely delicious sandwich. Enjoy.


See also: The Oliver: Reinventing a 50's Colossal Salami Sandwich -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

See also: The Ninkasi: The Ultimate Game/Party Day Submarine Sandwich