IT'S ALL ONE THING
by Bryce Martin

To all things there is an order. Your order is not necessarily my order. When I tape whatever it is I tape on television, I don�t try to edit out the commercials or promos. I do it that way for one reason; I want to capture it just the way it was. It is all one thing, it is a totality. That�s because I�m pre-remote. I am before the hand-held channel changers. If you wanted to change the channel, you got up and turned the knob. That usually meant you didn�t get up, not to get away from the commercials anyway. So, I'm accustomed to seeing all of it, the commercials, the announcements, all the filler in-between. I bring this up to get to my subject of the moment: an old favorite of mine, a patty melt. A patty melt is what it is for a reason. Take out any part of it, rearrange how it is put together, and it is not a patty melt. It is something else. A patty melt is a totality; a sum of all its parts. First off, the bread is rye, not plain, not sourdough, not wheat, not something else, but your basic rye bread. You toast the bread on a griddle or in a skillet. The meat is better if it is ground round, but it can be just hamburger, just ground beef. That part is a matter of preference and does not hurt anything. Here now is an important ingredient. Onion, red or white is fine. I like white. Here, though, is the key: sliced in rings; not diced. If you do everything else right, but you dice the onion, then you�ve ruined it. Grill the rings until they are caramelized. That�s big. The cheese you use is swiss, nothing else, swiss. It is relevant to remember to melt the cheese slices on the burger, and not on the bread. Now, put it together and you have one delicious sandwich. I left out the salt and pepper part. As the phrase goes, season to taste.