This week we’re again delving into the age-old conundrum of whether an open-faced sandwich is actually a sandwich. To get into this discussion, I’m focusing on a regional, self-proclaimed sandwich that was invented in 1928 in the Capital city of Illinois, Springfield. A chef named Joe Schweska and his wife Elizabeth are credited with creating and adding the horseshoe sandwich to their restaurant menu.
The sandwich topic I’m writing about in this blog post was suggested by a long-time member of the Bounded by Buns Patreon community. Thanks to Lucky for the suggestion!
What is a horseshoe sandwich?
The horseshoe sandwich was first served at the Leland Hotel in downtown Springfield. The Leland Hotel no longer exists as a place to eat and sleep as of 1970 but the building still exists as offices for the Illinois Commerce Commission. Even though the exact birthplace of the horseshoe sandwich is no longer with us, there are plenty of restaurants throughout Central Illinois that feature them on their menus.
The original horseshoe sandwich was served open-faced with a base layer of thick-sliced, toasted white bread, topped with a slice of bone-in ham (eventually other meats would be an option), french fries or another form of fried potatoes, and cheese sauce topping the whole plate.
The name “horseshoe” was derived from the shape of the cut of ham used in the original sandwich. The French fries represent the nails of the shoe, and the sizzle platter represents the hot anvil.
Visit Springfield Illinois
Fast forward to today, and it seems that a ground beef patty is more commonly seen as the default meat option in a horseshoe sandwich. Still, the horseshoe has also become a sort of dish with a bit of a loose interpretation that allows folks to experiment with different meats, cheeses, and potato options. You can even occasionally find a breakfast version of the horseshoe with the addition of gravy.
Visit Springfield Illinois has created a Springfield Horseshoe Trail which will direct you to the many horseshoe sandwiches in the area. There are also a large variety of horseshoe photos on that link if you like looking at french fries and cheese sauce.
In 2016, Jim at the Sandwich Tribunal, wrote about and made a horseshoe sandwich in his kitchen. Jim is originally from Quincy, Illinois which is located west of Springfield, and fondly remembers enjoying them in his youth. Go read about Jim’s experience if you want a bit more horseshoe sandwich in your life.
How about the ponyshoe?
The phrase “ponyshoe” refers to a smaller version of the horseshoe sandwich. A ponyshoe has the same ingredients that a horseshoe has but it typically starts with a base of just one piece of toast instead of two. I wrote my main horseshoe sandwich recipe for two slices of bread, but most of the horseshoes that you see in this blog post were ponyshoes because I am trying to live a few more years at least.
Horseshoe complexity at home
Cooking a horseshoe sandwich at home might at first seem like an easy task. It’s just toast, a burger patty (or other meat), french fries, and a cheese sauce, right? Yes. But for a horseshoe to be good, these all need to be cooked and hot at the same time.
A restaurant has a much easier way to handle things like a horseshoe sandwich. First, they often have toast machines where you swipe the bread across a butter dispenser and slip the bread into the top of the machine and it comes out toasted, waiting for you. Second, they have a deep fryer that typically has a timer/setting to keep track of your fries so that you don’t overcook or undercook. And finally, they are likely producing enough horseshoes in a day that they can have a cheese sauce prepared and simmering in the corner or some sort of warming situation. Now, the cook or chef simply has to grill a burger patty or other meat/protein and then build the whole thing.
At home, we have to get creative. The easiest solution for the fries would be to bake them and set a timer. You could deep fry them, but that’s going to add an extra level of complexity and stuff to clean up. I sometimes toast the bread while the pan for the meat is heating up but it’s probably easier to toast in the oven since it’s already hot and cooking the fries. You’re going to need a small pot and a skillet or pan to cook the meat. The cheese sauce can be cooked a bit in advance as long as you keep it warm so that it doesn’t firm up. The meat can be cooked last while the fries and toast are finishing.
Taking all of this into account, here’s my simple step-by-step process to make a horseshoe sandwich at home in less than 30 minutes.
- get the fries in the oven (350 – 425 F [175-220 C] —per package instructions)
- start my easy cheese sauce recipe
- add the bread slices directly to the rack in the hot oven with the fries for the last 10 to 12 minutes of french fry cooking time
- turn the burner under the cheese sauce to low to allow the cheese to stay warm (stir occasionally)
- cook the burger patty or ham steak
- assemble the horseshoe sandwich
Now that we know what we’re making, we need to talk about the components and ingredients.
Pullman loaf
A typical horseshoe is made with a base of sliced and toasted white bread. Sometimes it appears that a thicker-cut piece of bread, or Texas toast is used. For this task, I felt it only made sense to bake a mostly square slice of bread—which meant I was getting my Pullman loaf pan out.
I messed up this loaf of bread and accidentally made it ugly. But it still tasted good. I let time get the best of me and I allowed the dough to rise a little bit too long in the pan just prior to baking. Because of this, the dough expanded and pushed the Pullman pan lid up as it baked. I think I also didn’t have the lid attached properly, but it ended up being an almost square loaf with a slightly rounded top.
This photo isn’t a great approximation of what the loaf looked like when it came out of the oven, because I inverted the pan, removed the cooked loaf, and let it rest on a cooling rack upside down which greatly helped with the rounded top.
I’m just sharing this all here because I know it may sometimes look like most of my bread comes out picture-perfect, but in reality, I do bake some mistakes. Just like this loaf, mistakes in the baking world often happen but they usually still taste just fine.
Here’s the Pullman loaf recipe that I use. Just make sure to remove it when the dough has risen to just below the top of the pan. Those specific directions are in the recipe instructions.
Pullman loaf bread
A soft white loaf with square slices that are perfect for grilled cheese or Texas toast. Slice as thick or as thin as your sandwich situation requires.
Get RecipeToasted slices
These slices of bread are going to have meat, french fries, and a whole lot of cheese sauce dumped on top of them, so they need to be toasted so that they can stand up to the onslaught. You can toast in a pan or in a toaster or toaster oven, it’s up to you. For some of these sandwiches, I toasted the bread in butter in the same pan that I was eventually going to use to cook my burger patty or pieces of ham.
I also used our toaster oven and regular oven to create toast which produces a dryer piece of bread that seems to stand up a little better to the meat and cheese. After toasting, the toast immediately goes onto a cooling rack to rest so that it doesn’t become soggy.
The meat and/or veggie options
The first horseshoes were built using four components: toast, ham, fries, and cheese sauce, but today one of these components can often be swapped out. Three components that don’t seem to change very often are the toast, fries, and cheese sauce. Because of this, menus will often say things like, “Choose your meat or veggies” when referring to the horseshoe and that simply means you’re swapping the ham for one of the other options they have available.
I only used two different meat options in my horseshoe sandwiches. But there are a whole lot of other choices depending on the restaurant you visit or limited by your own imagination.
Ham steak
It is said that the cut of ham used in the original open-faced sandwich resembled a horseshoe and that’s how the open-faced sandwich got its name. This is one of the easiest meats that you could add to a horseshoe. Ham is already cooked, you just need to warm it up, brown the meat to your liking, and serve.
Beef patty
This is just a hamburger patty with some simple seasonings, cooked to your liking. Restaurants vary and many are getting way more creative with their horseshoe options, but a beef patty is still widely used as a default option.
Other options?
Many restaurants have really run with the horseshoe concept and you can practically get anything added as the meat or veggie these days. I have shared an image from D’arcy’s Pint in Springfield and they have 15 options, plus the additions included in their “Signature Shoes” section.
I haven’t tried these, but if I were walking into D’arcy’s Pint right now, I would probably lean toward trying the Nashville Hot Chicken horseshoe or maybe the pot roast version. I’ve always loved pot roast on toast and the addition of fries and cheese sauce would only push that over the top.
French fries
If you google image search “horseshoe sandwich” you’ll find out that a whole bunch of them are presented with crinkle-cut-style french fries. Some are served with other types of fries as well but crinkle-cut fries seem much more prevalent.
All of the fries that I used in the production of the horseshoe sandwiches that I made used frozen french fries. Most of them were baked, but some I cooked in a skillet with just a touch of oil. I would assume that most of the restaurants serving horseshoe sandwiches are also using frozen fries but they are most likely deep fried.
If you wanted to fry your own fresh-cut potatoes for a horseshoe sandwich you definitely could, but it elevates the complexity of cooking the components of this dish. Managing a deep fryer, making a cheese sauce, and cooking a burger patty all at the same time would be a lot of effort.
Crispy, hand cut french fries
Crispy french fries. There. I said it. That's all. Enjoy this recipe.
Get RecipeAnd here’s another good french fry recipe that would work just fine on top of a horseshoe. This is actually my copycat Bojangle’s fry recipe.
Cajun seasoned french fries (Bojangle's copycat)
1 hour and 10 minutesSome recipes online tell you to put the fries on top of the sandwich and pour the cheese sauce on top and some say to scatter the fries around the plate on top of the cheese sauce. I guess you can just do what you want in this regard. I poured the sauce on top of the fries.
Cheese sauce
I made several different cheese sauces for the horseshoes that I tested. I tried what is claimed to be the original cheese sauce and I also made my own much simpler version using the technique from Modernist Cuisine at Home. You can also find and use this Melty Cheese Calculator to make a cheese sauce that’s similar to the one I share below.
The Modernist Cuisine recipe uses a product called sodium citrate to ensure that the cheese sauce doesn’t break and seperate. I’ve written about sodium citrate before and used it many times to create custom-flavored cheese slices for sandwiches.
One cool thing about sodium citrate is that it has a long shelf life and you don’t need very much to create a smooth cheese sauce. This means it’s a good thing to have in the back of your cabinet as long as you have space. My package had at least a 3-year “best before” date so it probably is good for much longer than that since it’s a salt that’s similar to citric acid. So one $10 purchase should stock your pantry for a very long time.
I put this in the notes of the recipe, but if you don’t want to buy sodium citrate, I also have a beer cheese sauce recipe that’s a pretty good option but it’s a bit more complicated.
Small batch, quick cheese sauce
I made a bunch of horseshoes in the testing process and I didn’t think it made a whole lot of sense to make a huge batch of cheese sauce that I would eventually toss out. So I created an easy recipe for making a small batch of cheese sauce that you could double or triple based on your situation. The original horseshoe recipe uses sharp English cheddar which is typically just an aged cheddar. You can make this cheese sauce with pretty much any cheese but it’s best with softer cheeses like cheddar, gouda, Colby Jack, havarti, or provolone. For a horseshoe, you should probably use cheddar or Colby.
You can make this with 3 ingredients (four or five if you want a bit of extra flavor). And you can make it with cheese slices instead of shredded or blocks of cheese. A scale isn’t required for this recipe, but I think it helps a lot to make sure the cheese sauce is the right consistency. My recipe makes a fairly thin, fondue-style cheese sauce and if you want a thicker sauce, you can just reduce the amount of water by 10 grams or a couple of tablespoons to accomplish that.
The official horseshoe sandwich cheese sauce recipes call for Worcestershire sauce so I added just a teaspoon or two to some of the sauces I made. But it’s optional. Worcestershire just brings a bit more umami and savoriness to the cheese sauce.
Quick cheese sauce
This recipe creates a smooth and tasty cheese sauce that can be added to a cheesesteak or served on the side of your next plate of french fries or a batch of soft pretzels.
Get RecipeReheating cheese sauce
This cheese sauce can be refrigerated and can be easily brought back to a slightly thicker consistency in the microwave or in a small pot over medium heat. So you could in theory make the sauce in advance if you’re worried about having too many components to cook at the same time in making a horseshoe and warm it while you’re cooking the burger patty or other meat option.
Horseshoe build process
Once you have all your ingredients, a horseshoe is pretty easy to get set up and ready for serving. First lay down the toasted bread slices and then top them with whichever protein you have chosen. A pile of french fries goes on top of that and then smother it all in cheese sauce.
For optional garnishes, you can sprinkle on a little paprika and chopped-up parsley. Neither of these gives much in the way of aroma or flavor, but they do add pops of color.
A horseshoe sandwich is just four components plus a couple of garnishes. 
First you start with one or two slices of toast. 
Top the toast with the protein of your choosing. This is a ground beef patty. 
Then add fries and cover those with cheese sauce. 
This is a combination of provolone and mozzarella from a test batch of cheese sauce. 
I garnished with paprika and as you’ll see in the next photo, some parsley for color.
Horseshoe sandwich photos and recipes
As you can see, I ate a lot of cheese and french fries in the making of this blog post. Scroll through to see all of the horseshoes that I whipped up.
The horseshoe sandwich
This indulgent open-faced sandwich is not an everyday meal, but it's a great comforting dish for all of you cheesy french fry lovers out there. You know who you are. I see you.
Ingredients:
Quick cheese sauce- 100 grams water (scant 1/2 cup)
- 3 grams sodium citrate (1/2 teaspoon - if you do not have this see recipe notes below)
- 100 grams cheddar or Colby Jack cheese, shredded, cubed or sliced (3.5 ounces - or about 6 slices of cheese)
- 15 grams Worcestershire sauce (2 teaspoons - optional)
- 1 large handful of frozen french fries
- 2 thick slices of bread (Texas toast-style)
- 4 to 6 ounces ground beef, formed in a patty
- salt and ground black pepper
- cheese sauce (from above)
- paprika and/or parsley (optional garnish)
Directions:
Cheese sauce: get your ingredients for the cheese sauce ready but we're not going to start with that yet.
Preheat oven: look at the package instructions for your french fries and preheat the oven.
After the oven is preheated, add a large handful of frozen fries to an oven-safe pan and bake per package instructions.
When 10 to 12 minutes remain on the french fry cooking time, add 2 bread slices to the oven directly on the oven rack and allow the toast to cook until the fries are done.
Cheese sauce: add the water to a medium-sized pot and bring to a simmer. Add sodium citrate and stir to combine.
Slowly add all of the cheese, a little bit at a time, stopping to stir the cheese into the sauce between each portion of cheese. Once all the cheese is added stir very well while the cheese is still simmering to make sure it is very smooth. This might take 2 or 3 minutes and a silicone spatula or whisk is helpful here.
Once the cheese mixture is very smooth, add the Worcestershire sauce (if using) and stir to incorporate. Place the burner on low until it's time to use the cheese sauce.
This sauce should be thin when it's in the pot, but as it cools just a few minutes it will start to thicken quite a bit but should still stay saucy after being removed from the heat for 20 minutes or so.
Burger patty: when there are 8 to 10 minutes left to the french fry cooking time, add a medium skillet over medium-high heat and allow it to preheat.
Form the ground beef into a large circle or oval, salt, and pepper on both sides, and add it to the hot pan. Cook the patty for 3 to 4 minutes per side.
Horseshoe sandwich assembly: add two slices of toast to a large plate or bowl.
Top the toast with the cooked hamburger patty and then add all the fries on top of the meat.
Remove the still-simmering cheese sauce from the stove and pour as much of the sauce on top of the fries as you desire.
Garnish the top of the horseshoe with a sprinkle of paprika and some chopped parsley for color. Serve and enjoy.
Notes:
Sodium citrate is not going to be something you can find at the grocery store. Here is the brand of Sodium Citrate that I use from Amazon.
If you do not have sodium citrate, you can still create a cheese sauce like this beer cheese sauce recipe I have shared in the past. This isn't a quick cheese sauce so you should probably start it before starting the french fry process.
Is a horseshoe sandwich a sandwich?
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you will probably know that I have a loose interpretation of what is and isn’t a sandwich. For me, burgers are a sandwich. Hot dogs are a sandwich. A folded over piece of pizza dough with ingredients inside is pretty close to being a sandwich, but it’s definitely sandwich-adjacent. But I have a difficult time considering an open-faced sandwich to be an actual sandwich. In my mind, they’re sandwich-adjacent.
One thing I do know though, is that a horseshoe sandwich is a sandwich if you make it a sandwich. I turned one of the horseshoe sandwiches (technically a ponyshoe) and built it like normal with a slice of toast, a bread-sized beef patty, topped with french fries, and a quick cheese sauce. Then I turned the whole thing into a sandwich with a second slice of toast.
This turns a knife-and-fork sandwich into what is pretty much a simple patty melt with fries inside instead of grilled onions. I think this is a pretty good sandwich but it could use some mustard or maybe some pickles to bring everything together with a little zing.
Check back next week
Next week we’re going to eat eggs. Yes, yes, I know that eggs are super expensive and a little scarce to find at the moment, but maybe we can instead eat “eggs.” We’re going to eat “eggs.” Come back next week and see if we’ve figured everything out.
Bill says:
I’m laughing to myself, because I’ve been to Springfield a number of times and eaten horseshoes, and never caught on that they were open faced sandwiches! They were just marked “horseshoes” on the menu, and I think I saw the bread on the bottom of the whole thing the same way I saw the bread at the bottom of an order of Harold’s Chicken or south side aquarium smoker bbq!
Jonathan Surratt says:
Are you telling me that Harold’s Chicken is now an open-faced sandwich!? Maybe I’ll write about that next week!