not the Total Hell Sandwich I'd sort of expected

November 3, 2015 10:20 AM

MeFi's own Greg Nog makes a Dagwood Sandwich. But this is not the comical Dagwood you prefer to remember. This is an ancient, primordial Dagwood, and it is no joke.

Behold the ur-Dagwood:

But the original comic strip showed Dagwood raiding the refrigerator to make a colossal sandwich with whatever he could find, which included such things as sardines, tongue, baked beans, onions, mustard, and horseradish. His creation was a ridiculous combination of ingredients that should never shake hands, let alone share the space between bread slices.

But what Greg Nog does after he makes the Original Dagwood Sandwich will amaze you (spoiler: he makes a goddamn deconstructed hipster artisinal Original Dagwood)

[via mefi projects]

posted by prize bull octorok (92 comments total)

everything about this sandwich upsets me.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:21 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

some (hideous, glistening) parts more than others admittedly
posted by poffin boffin at 10:22 AM on November 3, 2015 [6 favorites]

Good news! The phrase "discarded the tastebud layer" has thoroughly revolted me!
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:25 AM on November 3, 2015 [22 favorites]

I don't like to use the word "hero" very often, I think it's overused, but I'm really close to applying it in this case.

Of course the real hero is whoever did the dishes after all that frying.

I'm curious why he assumed "beans" meant black beans. I have eaten a sandwich that had green beans in it and it was delicious. This was some Chilean concoction though, not something out of the funny papers. I suppose black beans provide more comedy.

Seriously though. Beans? Pretty much every other ingredient seems like it would work in a sandwich but... beans?
posted by bondcliff at 10:26 AM on November 3, 2015

DID YOU KNOW: a frozen beef tongue looks like something sloughed off of a character in David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ?

We <3 you, Greg.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:28 AM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

Greg Nog; eating tongue, bean and sardine sandwiches so we don't have to.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:29 AM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

Okay, I'll do it.

Metafilter: Zingy insouciance that borders on obnoxiousness.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:29 AM on November 3, 2015 [13 favorites]

He started with the sandwich we deserve, but then made the sandwich we need right now.
posted by maxsparber at 10:31 AM on November 3, 2015 [12 favorites]

People who don't cook, shouldn't take pictures of it.
posted by bobloblaw at 10:32 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Awesome V2. I would have tried something like fava or lima beans fried to a crisp, to add texture. And I think the issue with tongue is that like with all the off-cuts, look to the cultures that have had to figure that shit out by necessity. Sliced, boiled tongue? Not great. Slow cooked lengua? One of the most tender flavorful meats I've had.
posted by danny the boy at 10:33 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Damn it, I want SOMEWHERE AROUND ME THAT SERVES TONGUE!
posted by Samizdata at 10:33 AM on November 3, 2015

(And, yes, that goes along with the fact I am single, I suspect.)
posted by Samizdata at 10:33 AM on November 3, 2015

I think we killed the server!

(Or my internet just sucks)
posted by Carillon at 10:36 AM on November 3, 2015

He started with the sandwich we deserve, but then made the sandwich we need right now.

Your debutante just knows what you need/But I know what you want
posted by OmieWise at 10:37 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love beef tongue sandwiches. I also like sardines and onion, so I could definitely give that combo a try at some point, but I'm pretty well in the "beans, qua beans, do not belong on a sandwich" camp.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:37 AM on November 3, 2015

This fits entirely in Greg's normal wheelhouse of horror and beings beyond time and space.
posted by The Whelk at 10:38 AM on November 3, 2015 [5 favorites]

Greg Nog is a national treasure. We need a Greg Nog theme park, with a Greg Nog lunch counter. And a Greg Nog hospital.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:40 AM on November 3, 2015 [9 favorites]

remember kids when you eat beef tongue you are technically kissing all the other cows that cow has kissed so make sure to use protection!
posted by poffin boffin at 10:42 AM on November 3, 2015 [20 favorites]

I think I would have to discard my own tastebud layer before I'd be willing to try this.

The eXistenZ reference was pretty great, but if I may counter with a horror movie reference of my own, that picture of beef tongue looks pretty much exactly like one of the Alien slugs in Slither.
posted by webmutant at 10:42 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I found myself surprised that Greg Nog had never cooked tongue before. I assumed he would have made it into ice cream or beer at some point :)

Also, the use of black beans was a shocker. The pullquote clearly says "baked beans", and even if it hadn't that would have been my first go-to for this "everything in the pantry" concoction.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 10:43 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

plus wouldn't black beans have been considered an exotic foreign food in the 1850s or whenever that original strip is from
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:44 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

This is the Hallucigenia of sandwiches.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:45 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

poffin boffin: "remember kids when you eat beef tongue you are technically kissing all the other cows that cow has kissed so make sure to use protection!"

But you say that like that's a bad thing?
posted by Samizdata at 10:45 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm enjoying the fact that we appear to be literally overthinking a plate of beans in this thread.
posted by capricorn at 10:46 AM on November 3, 2015 [21 favorites]

"remember kids when you eat beef tongue you are technically kissing all the other cows that cow has kissed so make sure to use protection!"

Aka a filleting knife?
posted by Carillon at 10:47 AM on November 3, 2015

In Mexico, black beans are a baked bean option. When you move from the original recipe to the foodie version, substitutions are allowable, in the same way that the C chord can be replaced with a C9 or a Csus in music if you are so inclined.
posted by maxsparber at 10:49 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

I think we killed the server!

We are kind of getting a lot more traffic than usual today, sorry about that. Should be up again, for now. Be gentle guys :)
posted by JimTheBeerGuy at 10:54 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

My parents were inexplicably fond of tongue when I was a kid -- cheap, probably! -- and for extra glistening gruesomeness it was boiled and then cold pressed in gelatine. It was-- well, it was awful.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:00 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

A++ for research and obsessive attention to detail, but it's a testament to the legend of the Dagwood that I was expecting something vastly more ponderous and unwieldy. It's just kind of a ... sandwich.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:02 AM on November 3, 2015

I think I'll stick with Frankenstein's recipe for a Dagwood. The uncooked chicken leg really ties makes it work.
posted by the matching mole at 11:02 AM on November 3, 2015

Damn it, I want SOMEWHERE AROUND ME THAT SERVES TONGUE!

(And, yes, that goes along with the fact I am single, I suspect.)


It's funny you say this because a few years ago I was chatting with a dude on okcupid and somehow got to talking about eating nonstandard things, and I mentioned how I had had some tongue a while back that really didn't do it for me and it had put me off tongue ever since. He was like oh no that's horrible, I can help, and invited me over for tongue tacos. Not a euphemism. Like, he bought a tongue and spent many hours slow cooking a tongue to make lengua tacos for me. Even made the tortillas from scratch. Way to go, dude. Pretty good first date.

Anyway, I eat tongue again now.
posted by phunniemee at 11:05 AM on November 3, 2015 [18 favorites]

You just made me remember the tongue scene in Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 11:05 AM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

Thin-sliced beef tongue yakiniku is great. I am going to assume that all of you people who are grossing out over tongue in a sandwich just haven't had it done right.

Of course when you buy the stuff from an asian market it is already sliced for you and so just looks like slices of meat. Seeing a huge tongue on a Styrofoam tray is another thing entirely.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:06 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Re: baked beans

A memory from childhood (that I now intend on recreating soon) involves "sandwiches" made of white toast surrounding bacon and baked beans. I can totally see baked beans working in the context of the original sandwich (with the onions sauteed or carmelized instead of raw, because ugh).
posted by sparklemotion at 11:06 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Greg, why poach the tongue before making the confit?
posted by Dr. Twist at 11:06 AM on November 3, 2015

Well done, A Cad Fish Erskine.
posted by a halcyon day at 11:09 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

My main question re the "original Dagwood" is why the fuck the Blondie/Dagwood household had tongue, sardines, and horseradish around if they are apparently such disgusting sandwich ingredients? (I'll give them a pass on onions, beans, and mustard, because those are your basic inoffensive kitchen staples.)

Like, stop hitting yourselves, family. If you hate tongue and horseradish so much why did you buy them? Get fucking turkey next time, for chrissakes.
posted by Sara C. at 11:10 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, re beans, my favorite torta has a mashed black bean spread and it is DELICIOUS.

In fact, what with the tongue and all, how sure are we that this is not a Mexican thing, or that it would not be delightful in torta form?
posted by Sara C. at 11:11 AM on November 3, 2015

Tongue is actually pretty damn delicious. If I got a say I would swear that it's my favorite part of beef. So easy to chew, and with a very unique texture; kind of like beef pudding? Or something.

In a way it's almost similar to (higher grade) wagyu beef. Almost. In my country.. I don't think we cut the tastebuds though, but usually we cut it vertically so there'd be these oval-shaped thin slices of tongues that you could eat after being boiled with some cheese dressings or cook in a broth-rich soup, like any portmanteau said. It tastes heavenly.

Did I say that the slices would practically melt when you bite into them? Because they do.
posted by tirta-yana at 11:17 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

I am going to assume that all of you people who are grossing out over tongue in a sandwich just haven't had it done right

lol i literally don't know a single ashkenazi jew who hasn't had a perfectly nice tongue sandwich (perhaps tricksily handed to them by a grandparent when they were kids) at some point in their lives

i think it's maybe okay to say that some people are reacting to the HUGE GLISTENING RAW TONGUE more than anything else
posted by poffin boffin at 11:23 AM on November 3, 2015 [6 favorites]

Tongue is one of my favourite things to cook. Tongue tacos are one of the best ways to do it as well. I have a sous vide machine so the tongue sits in there for a day and a half and when you pull it out and cool it down you then have to slice off and peel away the outer skin. It's thick and leathery and then the flesh inside is so soft. I have definitely grossed a lot of people out talking about how much I love cooking tongue. You shred it up, throw it into a sauce of tomatoes, onions, adobo sauce and cilantro. Put it on your double (because it's so soft) taco over some white onions that have been sitting in vinegar and salt and experience heaven.

The sandwich in the post, the one he makes at the end, looks way too sloppy to enjoy without a protective covering of fake newspaper.

edit: Also, make sure you ask your butcher to give you a bilingual tongue.
posted by Neronomius at 11:30 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

A memory from childhood (that I now intend on recreating soon) involves "sandwiches" made of white toast surrounding bacon and baked beans.

Beans and toast is a traditional food of the British Isles.

Additionally, if you have beans and toast and Eskimo pie too, it sounds like you're singing this song.
posted by maxsparber at 11:32 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: A beans we can be proud of
posted by The Whelk at 11:36 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Lengua tacos are the best things.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:39 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

I called the police
posted by shakespeherian at 11:46 AM on November 3, 2015 [8 favorites]

did you tell them people are kissing cows
posted by poffin boffin at 12:01 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

I appreciate the amount of thought the beans are getting.
posted by nubs at 12:05 PM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

where the hell are the sardine sandwich recipes you chuckleheads

why do you think I posted this
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:07 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

well, you take some beans..
posted by Namlit at 12:08 PM on November 3, 2015

Baked beans on (well-buttered) toast were a childhood staple - well, they were for many of my friends, I couldn't really enjoy them after I lost my sweet tooth at age ten or so, as the tomato sauce they come in (in the UK at least) is pretty much some kind of gloopy syrup. And anything you eat on toast can easily be eaten between two slices of toast, so yeah. Beans in sandwiches are not alien in the old country.
posted by Devonian at 12:09 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

nor is tongue, in fact.

but srsl, you're all overthinking this.
posted by Namlit at 12:10 PM on November 3, 2015

Let's cut Greg Nog some slack. Even Nom Nom Paleo can get tongue to look only so good.

There's got to be some meal involving beef tongue and geoducks, but I'm not looking it up.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:10 PM on November 3, 2015

One thing that strikes me about the original sandwich is that it's stuff that's cheap (the offal meat of tongue), keeps for a long time (rye bread and onions), and canned (all of the condiments and sardines). It seems like all of that stuff relates to food ways before cheap refrigeration made fresh vegetables easily available and cheap. I think I remember reading how canned foods and canned cuisine have gone into and out of style with those trends.
posted by codacorolla at 12:13 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

If you want tongue to look good, try tongue in aspic. It's "a fine-looking dish."
posted by peeedro at 12:16 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

yeah well I kept asking them to special order larks and now I'm not allowed in the Safeway anymore
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:20 PM on November 3, 2015 [14 favorites]

Kosher smoked beef tongue is lovely. As an ex-deli worker, this is the stuff you sneak a slice of, now and then. But don't let the boss catch you.
posted by Splunge at 12:27 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

One thing that strikes me about the original sandwich is that it's stuff that's cheap (the offal meat of tongue), keeps for a long time (rye bread and onions), and canned (all of the condiments and sardines).

The Economics Behind Grandma's Tuna Casseroles
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:38 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Most of the tongue used in sandwiches I've had were either smoked and brined or pickled. Baked, braised, or as above sous vide were more for regular meals, and aside from the usual gaminess of organ meat, great stuff. Tongue is getting hard to find, haven't seen it even in the butchers for years, tough I suppose one could order it. Oooh, I wonder what the skin on the tongue would be like if you removed and tanned it instead of par-cooking and removing it that way. Hmm.
posted by Blackanvil at 12:52 PM on November 3, 2015

When making tongue at home, it's not a quick project. For it to taste good, it has to brine overnight in garlic, black peppercorns, allspice, and so on (i.e., the kind of stuff you would use to make good pickles), then you simmer it all day in a pot with the brine, and then you cover it up and let the flavors meld in the fridge a few days, and THEN you slice it very thin and put it on a sandwich. These days I have to admit would go to the deli counter.
posted by aught at 12:56 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

yeah well I kept asking them to special order larks and now I'm not allowed in the Safeway anymore

Safeway never did appreciate a good King Crimson reference.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:00 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Beans in sandwiches are not alien in the old country.

That's what a Breville sandwich toaster is for...and here's the proof.
posted by howfar at 1:03 PM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Reader, I ate that sandwich, and I survived to tell the tale.
posted by likeatoaster at 1:17 PM on November 3, 2015 [6 favorites]

That's what a Breville sandwich toaster is for...and here's the proof.

I can't follow your Pinterest link from work... but this video! Minus cheese plus bacon (sometimes a overhard egg)! With the triangle-shaped sandwich formings! That's what I remember!

Haven't eaten that in probably 15 years.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:29 PM on November 3, 2015

For me, the Dagwood foodstuff of choice is the humble Dagwood Dog. I like to imagine that for the Australian fair carnie of the 1940s, the very idea of impaling a hot dog on a stick, dipping it in a wheat flour batter, deep frying it?!?!, then covering it in tomato sauce, seemed such an outlandish and cartoonish level of American-style excess that they named it the Dagwood Dog.

However, this may not be the whole story. On researching the Australian genesis of the Dagwood Dog/Pluto Pup, I dove down a Trove rabbit hole, and it appears that Roland Stegeman and Betty Winsome Stegeman, manufacturers of the Pronto Pup, are the prime movers of the Oz Battered Hotdog Onna Stick scene. Pronto Pup is a still extant US company, and while there are some 1945 references in Australian papers in which it is described as combining the features of a doughnut, hot-dog, and popsicle (chocolate-coated ice cream)*, I can't find anything that definitively connects the Stegemans with Pronto Pup USA. It does appear pretty likely that there's a connection- this 1942 social column from the Sydney Truth places the Stegemans in Bremerton, Washington, less than 200 mi from Rockaway Beach, OR (birthplace of the Pluto Pup in the 1930s). By 1949 the Stegemans had returned to Oz, and had filed letters patent for the Battered Hotdog Onna Stick, subsequently applying for an injunction against the purveyors of Dagwood Dogs for infringing their patent for the improvement of sausage goods in which, prior to frying, a stick had been inserted axially in the frankfurt, leaving a portion thereof protruding.

I'll leave how we get from there to the modern Australian Dagwood Dog/Pluto Pup detente for future antipodean sausage goods historians.

*(Since they're explaining what a popsicle is, it's likely this is a lightly edited wire article from the US.)
posted by zamboni at 1:31 PM on November 3, 2015 [7 favorites]

Tongue is really wonderful.
posted by kenko at 1:45 PM on November 3, 2015

I remember seeing tongue in the meat section of the grocery when I was a kid and being totally grossed out. Fast forward 50 years or so and there I was enjoying tongue tacos from a local food truck. Presentation is everything.
posted by tommasz at 1:45 PM on November 3, 2015

I really like corned beef and make my own every year roughly based on this recipe. Both beef tongue and heart would be perfect for this treatment and I look forward to trying it out. I grew up in a house where these sorts of things were eaten from time to time, so no big deal to me. The sardines would be a bigger issue, but I could deal with it for the sake of authenticity.

My mother recently had a meeting of one of her book clubs where they try to eat a food mentioned the in the book and she wanted to serve tongue sandwiches (I don't recall the book). It took awhile to source beef tongue around here so she went with another option, but now I know where to find one and so will fix this at the next opportunity.
posted by TedW at 1:48 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

re: brining/smoking tongue, I made some excellent tongue pastrami a couple of months ago. I find dealing with tongue, specifically removing the skin, to be a pain in the ass though so it'll probably be a while before I make it again.
posted by JimTheBeerGuy at 1:53 PM on November 3, 2015

I often eat sardine and onion sandwiches, tongue and mustard sandwiches, and beans-on-toast. Never considered combining the lot. Probably would be okay.
posted by fimbulvetr at 2:03 PM on November 3, 2015

With the triangle-shaped sandwich formings! That's what I remember!

I watched the video and am now (no shit) getting memory rushes to Knight Rider episodes from the 1980s. I've not has a Breville toastie for a quarter of a century, I'd guess, but I remember them precisely.
posted by howfar at 2:14 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

I can see this turning out well - isn't it about the proportions?
IMO, the tongue should be brined/corned, then cooled and cut very thin, like deli meat, and lots of it. I love tongue.
I would have made a sardine butter with the sardines and some capers and then spread it fairly thin.
Horseradish cream looks delish, and so does the bean spread, but baked beans British style would be ok, too.
A mix of cooked and raw onions seems like a great idea. Hmmm. Maybe I should try this very soon….
posted by mumimor at 2:16 PM on November 3, 2015

you're tempting fate with that ending there
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:32 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Tongue is one of the best things to eat. I love it thinly slice and grilled over charcoal. Serve fresh with lemon, pepper and chopped green onions. Drink with beer or vodka.

Do this all night.

That is all.
posted by Nevin at 3:51 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

What would Socrates think of this?
posted by MtDewd at 5:07 PM on November 3, 2015

my mom used to make tongue, and I vividly remember watching in horrified fascination as she held the cooked tongue up on the end of a fork and slowly peeled away the tastebuds.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 5:14 PM on November 3, 2015

Do you miss Nifelheim?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:18 PM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

and I vividly remember watching in horrified fascination as she held the cooked tongue up on the end of a fork and slowly peeled away the tastebuds.

Move over Jane Austen zombies it's time for Proust vs Cthulhu!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:20 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Can we use fish sauce instead of sardines? That's as far as I'm willing to go with my tongue.
posted by perrouno at 8:54 PM on November 3, 2015

"... both too mushy and too dry, like chewing on a men’s dress sock". This line will stay with me forever.
posted by h00py at 9:10 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wait, why discard the tastebuds? Do tastebuds taste bad? Or does the taste of tasting create some sort of feedback loop of infinite flavor, locking the tastebud taster in a catatonic state of gustatory madness?
posted by dgaicun at 9:12 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

They're tough and chewy and generally ick. Mentally too, it'd be like eating nipples or something.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:32 PM on November 3, 2015

I once visited an areola can eat buffet. They did have fried chicken for nit-pickers such as yourself, but I say breasts without nipples are pointless.
posted by dgaicun at 10:00 PM on November 3, 2015

In addition to the tough/chewy skin texture, the tongue's upper surface is rough and sandpapery like a cat's. Not appetizing at all, though I suppose there's a certain sporting feeling to eating something that is simultaneously eating you back.
posted by JimTheBeerGuy at 7:33 AM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Tongue is pretty common as Korean fare. Served boiled, cold, with a 'dip' of salt/pepper/sesame oil mixture. Then I found out that tongue is also a pretty common filling for sandwiches in Scotland. Old fashioned, but common.

When my parents met my husband's grandmother for the first time she made up a plate of tongue sandwiches (no beans, just butter on white bread) and her home made lentil soup (a soup my husband is lovingly recreates once in a while in honor of his gran who passed away a few years ago). They were very impressed that "Scottish people ate tongue". I think those sandwiches went some way in bridging the cultural divide for them.
posted by like_neon at 8:24 AM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I maintain that Greg needs to write all the recipes. His grilled cheese recipe is the bestest and made me fat and happy last week.
posted by culfinglin at 1:02 PM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I just had delicious beef tongue at a beer festival in Tokyo. Thick cut, like maybe 3/4 of an inch, slices on a skewer, grilled over charcoal. They slice most of the way through each piece so you can get bite sized chunks pretty easily, but you still have a nice thick piece of juicy, very flavorful beef tongue.

Pork tongue is also awesome, and I would highly recommend it if you find it at a place that does yakitori. So, so good.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:44 PM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

See also picante de lengua -- there are a few Bolivian places around me that serve it. OK, so maybe I haven't nerved myself up to try it yet, but it looks good, and the preparation is similar to falso conejo, which I do like. Maybe next time.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 3:50 AM on November 5, 2015

His grilled cheese recipe is the bestest and made me fat and happy last week.

Okay, look, you can't just say that and not post a link to the recipe. That's just mean.
posted by webmutant at 10:55 AM on November 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

To all the nay-sayers in this post, I say "bite your tongue!"
posted by TedW at 12:56 PM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

The grilled cheese recipe. It was so cheesy and wonderful and now my favorite jeans don't fit. But it was worth it. This was even good on gluten-free bread, and nothing is ever good on gluten-free bread.
posted by culfinglin at 8:58 PM on November 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

That is a garlic bread recipe! It says so right in the title!

However, when I was a child my mother's "grilled cheese" consisted of sliced cheese on bread (or more often a roll), toasted under the broiler. It wasn't until later in life that I realized how I had been deprived of the buttery, gooey majesty of the "real thing". So I will grudgingly accept your description as valid :)
posted by sevenyearlurk at 12:44 PM on November 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

The Blondie Cookbook version of a "Skyscraper Sandwich," what's more likely the prototype for the modern Dagwood, includes cold, baked beans, so unlikely black beans, which tend to be more starchy.
posted by klangklangston at 3:11 PM on November 6, 2015