Zingerman's Vegetarian Reuben Sandwich Kit

Zingerman’s Reuben Kit is full of delicious ingredients for you to make your own Reuben at home! We pack the perishable ingredients in insulated packaging and ship everything with two business day shipping to ensure the kit arrives in great condition. Ideally, you’ll want to assemble and nosh on your sandwiches within a few days to get the full-flavored experience, but some of the accompaniments have a longer shelf life.

Although our seasonal and holiday kits may have added foods or different desserts fitting the occasion, here’s a tour through the basics of what you can expect to find in your kit and how long you can savor their flavors.

Zingerman’s Bakehouse bread

For the crusty, toasty sandwich exterior, you’ll receive Jewish Rye Bread made with freshly milled rye flour and ground caraway seeds or Pumpernickel Bread. Kits that serve 3-4 include one loaf and kits that serve 6-8 include two loaves. They’re shipped whole so you can slice them when you’d like to assemble your sandwiches.

Keep on the counter to eat within a few days or freeze for up to three months.

The best cured & cooked meats (or tempeh)

Depending on your kit of choice, you’ll stack your sandwich with first cut corned beef, first cut lean pastrami, or oven roasted turkey. Kits that serve 3-4 include 1 pound of sliced meat and kits that serve 6-8 include 2 pounds.

Keep the meats in the fridge to eat within five days or freeze for up to six months. For the vegetarian reuben with tempeh, cook and eat the tempeh within two to three days.

Flavorful condiments

You’ll get tangy Brinery sauerkraut, sliced Emmentaler Swiss cheese, garlicky pickles, and creamy coleslaw and Russian dressing made in our own kitchen. The vegetarian reuben has sliced cheddar cheese made with vegetarian rennet.

Keep everything in the fridge and plan to use most of these crunchy and creamy toppings within a few days. The Russian dressing is best within a couple weeks, and the sauerkraut can be kept longer if it stays submerged in the brine.

Zingerman’s potato chips and Zingerman’s Bakehouse brownie bites

To round out the meal, snack on personal-sized bags of Zingerman’s potato chips made by Great Lakes Potato Chip Company and flavored with Epices de Cru spices. Kits that serve 3-4 include 4 personal-sized bags and kits that serve 6-8 include 8 personal-sized bags.

For a sweet treat, there are no-nut brownie bites. Kits that serve 3-4 include 6 brownie bites and kits that serve 6-8 include 12 brownie bites. Eat or freeze the brownie bites within a couple weeks.

Excerpted from the new Zingerman’s Bakehouse Book

In order to open Zingerman’s Bakehouse, we had to be able to bake great Jewish Rye Bread for Zingerman’s Delicates­sen, which was our first (and at the beginning our only) customer. It’s not possible to have a superb Reuben sandwich without authentic Jewish rye bread. We wanted our Jewish rye to be an essential part of the sand­wich, not just a structural element that didn’t really add to the flavor. So right from the beginning, we used and further evolved the excellent recipe and techniques we learned from our first teacher, Michael London.

First, we use a sour starter, which is unusual these days.

It adds a little bit of leavening to the recipe, but mainly it provides depth and complexity of flavor. We created the starter in the fall of 1992, and we’ve been feeding it every day since to keep it healthy, with just the right amount of tang. This version of rye bread was the one made most often by the Polish Jewish bakers in New York and was called sour rye. It later became known as Jewish rye.

Second, we use “old” rye bread from the previous day’s bake.

We slice and soak it in water and then add it to the dough. It adds a layer of texture, flavor, moisture, and color to the bread. It’s also a tradition for Jewish bakers to take something from yesterday and put it in today’s recipes, representing the continuity and interconnectedness of life.

Third, there’s actually some rye in the recipe.

Many rye breads are made from white-wheat flour with a touch of rye added. We use lots of medium rye (rye flour that has some of its bran) in our sour starter.

Finally, we create a real crackly crust.

We brush each loaf with water before it goes into the oven and then again when it comes out. The contrast of the cool water on the hot loaf causes the crust to crack in a distinctive way that is characteristic of Jewish rye.