The 'Frankel's' Thick-Cut Pastrami, Egg, and Cheese
Chapter 3 — Breakfast Bagels
Toss thick-cut navel pastrami into a hot cast-iron skillet until the fat hisses, channeling the bright lights of a Greenpoint corner deli where Frankel's takes the centuries-old Eastern European tradition of pastrami and drags it onto a hot New York bodega flat-top. Seal the sandwich inside an aluminum foil wrapper, letting the trapped steam finish thick, mahogany hunks of heavily smoked beef stacked precariously over a tightly folded griddle omelette suffocating under molten American cheese. For the love of everything holy, do not substitute the cheese.
Before you start
Cut the pastrami into rugged, half-inch thick cubes before touching the stove.
A bagel counter worker doesn't stop to chop meat while eggs are burning; get your thick slab prepped into mahogany nubs first.
Crack the eggs into a container with salt and pepper and beat aggressively.
Halve your bagel and unwrap the American cheese so they are ready for rapid assembly.
Ingredients
- fresh authentic bagel1 large
- premium deli pastrami4 oz
- eggs2 large
- yellow American cheese2 slice
- unsalted butter1 tbsp
- kosher salt1 pinch
- black pepper1 pinch
Method
- 01
Toast the bagel halves in foaming butter until the edges are crisp and golden-brown.
Heat a cast-iron skillet or griddle over medium heat, melt half the butter, toast the cut sides of the bagel, and set them aside face up.
- 02
Toss the thick pastrami cubes onto the hot steel for ninety seconds to awaken the spices and release the smoky beef fat.
You aren't cooking the meat—it is already cured and steamed—you are simply giving the edges a slight sizzle before pushing it to the coolest side of the skillet to keep warm.
- 03
Melt the remaining butter in the center of the skillet, pour in the beaten eggs, and confidently fold them into a tight square as they set.
Let the eggs sit undisturbed for just 10 seconds, push the edges inward, and while the top is still slightly wet and glossy, fold the egg in half and then in half again to match the footprint of your bagel.
- 04
Drape the American cheese in a criss-cross pattern directly over the hot, folded egg square.
The residual heat from the egg and the skillet will trigger the cheese's melting phase within seconds.
- 05
Transfer the cheese-smothered egg onto the bottom bagel half and pile the hot pastrami high on top.
Build this fast; the melted American cheese acts as culinary mortar, grabbing onto the pastrami nubs to hold them in place.
- 06
Place the top half of the bagel over the meat, press down firmly, and wrap tightly in foil for exactly sixty seconds to marry the textures.
Unwrap, take a bite, and confirm out loud that this is exactly what you would have paid sixteen dollars for on Orchard Street.
Notes
Scoop the bagel to create a structural cradle for the massive, loose proteins.
Bagel purists hate it, but hollowing out the soft doughy interior crumb of both bagel halves leaves only the dense, chewy crust. This locks the pastrami and egg in place, preventing the filling from shooting out the back of the bagel when you take a bite. Try it here, you won't regret it.