A Hot Brown sandwich (sometimes known as a Louisville Hot Brown or Kentucky Hot Brown) is an American hot

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

originally created at the Brown Hotel in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, by Fred K. Schmidt in 1926. It is a variation of traditional Welsh rarebit and was one of two signature sandwiches created by chefs at the Brown Hotel shortly after its founding in 1923. It was created to serve as an alternative to ham and

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

late-night dinners.Kleber, John E. (I) ''The Kentucky Encyclopedia''. UP of Kentucky. p. 443.

Ingredients

The Hot Brown is an

open-faced An open sandwich, also known as an open-face/open-faced sandwich, bread baser, bread platter or tartine, consists of a slice of bread or toast with one or more food items on top. History During the start of the middle ages, thin slabs of coarse ...

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

breast and ham and

bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...

, covered in creamy Mornay sauce and baked or broiled until the

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

is crisp and the sauce begins to brown.

Cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. Cheddar originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. Ched ...

or American cheese may be added for the sauce. Alternatives for garnishes include tomatoes,

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

slices, and, very rarely, canned

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

es.Kleber, John E. (II) ''Encyclopedia of Louisville''. (University Press of Kentucky). pg.404. Some Hot Browns also include ham with the turkey, and either pimentos or

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es over the sauce, and imitation Hot Browns sometimes substitute a commercial

cheese sauce Cheese sauce is a sauce made with cheese or processed cheese as a primary ingredient. Sometimes dried cheese or cheese powder is used. Several varieties exist and it has many various culinary uses. Mass-produced commercial cheese sauces are also ...

instead of the Mornay. When Fred K. Schmidt created the Hot Brown, its sliced roast turkey was a rarity, as turkey was usually reserved for holiday feasts. The original Hot Brown included the sliced turkey on an open-faced

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

toast Toast most commonly refers to: * Toast (food), bread browned with dry heat * Toast (honor), a ritual in which a drink is taken Toast may also refer to: Places * Toast, North Carolina, a census-designated place in the United States Books * '' ...

sandwich, with Mornay sauce covering it, with a sprinkling of

Parmesan cheese Parmesan ( it, Parmigiano Reggiano; ) is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cows’ milk and aged at least 12 months. It is named after two of the areas which produce it, the provinces A province is almost always an administrat ...

, completed by being oven- broiled until bubbly. Pimento and bacon strips were then added to it. After its debut, it quickly became the choice of 95% of the Brown Hotel's restaurant customers. The dish is a local specialty and favorite of the Louisville area, and is popular throughout Kentucky. It was long unavailable at its point of origin, as the Brown Hotel was shuttered from 1971 to 1985.

Variations

The "cold brown" is baked

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...

(

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

or turkey), hard-boiled egg, lettuce, and

open-faced on

rye bread Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat f ...

, and covered with Thousand Island dressing. It is rarely served anymore. In St. Louis, the Prosperity Sandwich is a similar dish, with origins at the Mayfair Hotel in the 1920s. It is still served in the area today, and sometimes called a "hot brown". The

Turkey Devonshire The Turkey Devonshire sandwich, sometimes simply called a Devonshire, originated in 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is typically served as a hot open-faced sandwich on toasted bread with hot turkey, bacon, tomatoes, and a cheese sauce.Hoover, B ...

, first served in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, in the 1930s, has been described as being similar to the Hot Brown.Cathey, Dave (2 February 2011)
Food fight: Pittsburgh, Green Bay recipes go head to head
''

The Oklahoman ''The Oklahoman'' is the largest daily newspaper in Oklahoma, United States, and is the only regional daily that covers the Greater Oklahoma City area. The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly Audit Bureau Circulation) lists it as the 59th larges ...

In the media

On the Food Network, the Hot Brown was featured in an episode of ''

Throwdown! with Bobby Flay ''Throwdown! with Bobby Flay'' is a Food Network television program in which celebrity chef Bobby Flay challenges cooks renowned for a specific dish or type of cooking to a cook-off of their signature dish. At the beginning of each show, Flay rec ...

''. Joe and John Castro, chefs of the Brown Hotel in Kentucky, competed and won against Flay in a cook-off. It has also been featured on episodes of the network's shows ''

The Rachael Ray Show ''The Rachael Ray Show'' is an American television talk show hosted by Rachael Ray that debuted in Broadcast syndication, syndication in the United States and Canada on September 18, 2006 and also airs in other countries. It is taped at Chelsea St ...

'' and '' Southern Fried Road Trip''. On the Travel Channel, the Hot Brown has been featured on the show ''Taste of America'' with

Mark DeCarlo Mark DeCarlo is an American actor, television host, comedian, travel, internet personality, and foodie expert. He is currently known for being a contributor to WLS-TV morning show ''Windy City Live'', a locally produced Chicago program that rep ...

, a Louisville-themed episode of ''

Man v. Food Nation ''Man v. Food Nation'' is the name given to the fourth season of the Travel Channel's '' Man v. Food'', a food reality television series. It premiered on June 1, 2011. A preview episode, "The Quest Begins", aired on May 25. In this show, host Ad ...

'' and a 2018 episode of '' Food Paradise'' titled "Sandwich Heroes". On

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

, the sandwich was featured in a Top Chef: Kentucky Quickfire challenge. On PBS, the Hot Brown has been featured in the documentary '' Sandwiches That You Will Like'' as well as the program ''

The Mind of a Chef ''The Mind of a Chef'' is a non-fiction television series on PBS narrated and executive produced by Anthony Bourdain, and combines travel, cooking, history, and science. Each season follows a different chef, or pair of chefs, and examines their be ...

'', where Chef David Chang presented his interpretation of the sandwich.

References

External links

Hot Brown Recipe
— Archived on th
Wayback Machine
Original came from the Brown Hotel (includes some history)
Hot Brown Recipe
— Recipe for Hot Brown On the Brown Hotel website * The Hot Brown was on the cover and listed as #10 for being the South's Richest Sandwich o
Saveur magazine's Top 100 Issue #81
January/February 2005. {{Bacon American sandwiches Cuisine of Louisville, Kentucky History of Louisville, Kentucky 1926 establishments in Kentucky Food and drink introduced in 1926 Hot sandwiches Open-faced sandwiches Cheese sandwiches Bacon sandwiches Turkey dishes

Ingredients

Variations

In the media

See also

References

External links