- 6 C rye bread
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes; toast these until they start to brown, about 20 minutes in the oven while it's pre-heating.
- 2 large leeks
- 1/4 C butter
Halve the leeks and slice them thin. Saute them in butter in a large skillet until tender.
- 6 large eggs
- 2 C whole milk
- 2 C heavy cream
- 1 T whole-grain mustard
- 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp salt
Mix the eggs, milk and cream thoroughly in a large bowl. Stir in seasonings.
- 1 C Swiss cheese
- 1/2 lb pastrami
Grate the cheese. Cut the pastrami into 1/4-inch cubes. Mix cheese, pastrami, toasted bread cubes, and sauteed leeks into the custard. Pour into a casserole dish and bake at 350 F until the custard sets and the top is brown and crunchy, 35 to 45 minutes.
We use this to get rid of bread heels. Almost any bread works, but if you like caraway, use Jewish rye!
This works best when the meat can be cut into true cubes. Starting with thinly sliced meats will give the right flavor, but won't be as satisfying. Various meats can be used: the original recipe used corned beef, our family version uses pastrami, and our most recent batch used ham. All are delicious.
The original recipe uses 12 jumbo muffin cups lined with parchment paper, but the casserole dish is a lot easier.