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 Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit ( or ) is a dish consisting of a hot cheese-based sauce served over slices of toasted bread. The original 18th-century name of the dish was the jocular "Welsh rabbit", which was later reinterpreted as "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 Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "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 coa ...

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

breast and ham and bacon, covered in creamy

Mornay sauce A Mornay sauce is a béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. Some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, white cheddar or even Parmesan cheese. A Mornay sauce made with cheddar is commonly used to make ...

and baked or broiled until the bread is crisp and the sauce begins to brown. Cheddar cheese or

American cheese Modern American cheese is a type of processed cheese developed in the 1910s made from cheddar, Colby, or similar cheeses. It is mild with a creamy and salty flavor, has a medium-firm consistency, and has a low melting point. It is typically ye ...

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 ...

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-f ...

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

pimento A pimiento or pimento (or cherry pepper) is a variety of large, red, heart-shaped chili pepper ('' Capsicum annuum'') that measures 3 to 4 in (7 to 10 cm) long and 2 to 3 in (5 to 7 cm) wide (medium, elongate). Pimientos can have vari ...

s 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 o ...

toast 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 of Parma and Reggio Emilia (''Parmigiano'' ...

, 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, ...

(

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 adu ...

or turkey), hard-boiled egg,

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

, 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 whea ...

, and covered with

Thousand Island dressing Thousand Island dressing is an American salad dressing and condiment based on mayonnaise that can include olive oil, lemon juice, orange juice, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, vinegar, cream, chili sauce, tomato purée, and ketchup or ...

. It is rarely served anymore. In

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, 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, first served in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, 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 large ...

In the media

On the

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

, 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 syndication in the United States and Canada on September 18, 2006 and also airs in other countries. It is taped at Chelsea Television Studios in Ne ...

'' and ''

Southern Fried Road Trip ''Southern Fried Road Trip'' is a television show appearing on the Food Network. It features Bobby Deen and Jamie Deen, the sons of Paula Deen Paula Ann Hiers Deen (born January 19, 1947) is an American chef, cookbook author, and TV personali ...

''. On the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

, 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 re ...

, a Louisville-themed episode of '' Man v. Food Nation'' and a 2018 episode of ''

Food Paradise ''Food Paradise'' is a television series narrated by Jesse Blaze Snider (formerly by Mason Pettit) that features the best places to find various cuisines at food locations across America. Episodes were originally shown on the Travel Channel. Oth ...

'' titled "Sandwich Heroes". On Bravo, the sandwich was featured in a Top Chef: Kentucky Quickfire challenge. On

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, the Hot Brown has been featured in the documentary ''

Sandwiches That You Will Like ''Sandwiches That You Will Like'' is a 2002 PBS documentary by Rick Sebak of WQED. The unique sandwich offerings of cities across the United States (although excepting two from California, the remaining sandwiches all originate no further we ...

'' 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 b ...

'', 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