Reuben Dog
A grilled sausage in a bun with kraut, pickle, and a paprika-spiked ketchup sauce.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 7.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 72
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Bratwurst or smoked sausage links | 4 | pre-cooked smoked links are safer in a cooler than raw brats |
|---|---|---|
| Hot dog buns | 4 | sesame if you can find them |
| Ketchup | 1/3 cup | packets work and keep without a cooler |
| Sour cream | 1/3 cup | or 3 tbsp sour cream powder plus 3 tbsp water |
| Paprika | 1 tbsp | |
| Sauerkraut | 1 cup | drained; a shelf-stable jar or pouch beats the refrigerated tub |
| Kosher dill pickle spears | 4 | jarred, packed in brine |
Method
- At home or in camp, stir the ketchup, sour cream, and paprika together in a jar or bag. It keeps in the cooler for a couple of days.
- Drain the sauerkraut hard. Wet kraut turns the bun to paste.
- Skewer the sausages on a grill fork or a stripped green stick and turn them over the coals until the skins split and blister, about 8 to 10 minutes. On a grate, roll them a quarter turn every couple of minutes.
- Lay the buns cut side down at the edge of the grate for thirty seconds to warm and dry them.
- Load a sausage into each bun, spoon the paprika sauce over the top, then pile on kraut and a pickle spear.
This is a hot dog wearing a Reuben’s clothes. The parts that make a Reuben read as a Reuben are the sauerkraut and the pink dressing, and both of those survive a cooler far better than corned beef and rye do. The paprika does the color and most of the smell; the sour cream carries it.
Draining the kraut is the step people skip. Sauerkraut is mostly brine, and brine goes straight through a bun in about a minute. Squeeze it in a paper towel or press it against the jar lid until it stops dripping. If you are going without a cooler, sour cream powder rehydrated with a splash of water makes the same sauce and asks nothing of your ice.
Packing
Mix the sauce at home and carry it in a small screw-top jar. Buns go in a rigid container or they arrive flat. Kraut and pickles travel in their own brine, and both jars want to be upright.
Variations
- Swiss cheese laid on the hot sausage before the bun closes takes this the rest of the way to a Reuben.
- Swap the sour cream for shelf-stable mayo and skip the cooler entirely.
- Slice the sausages and cook everything into the kraut in a skillet if the buns did not survive the drive.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/reuben-dog