11 Wild and Crazy Sandwich Mashups

I’m not a big fan of the word “mashup” when applied to art or videos, because the words “combination,” “crossover,” or just “mix” will do just fine. The neologism “mashup” makes me think of food, so the term makes sense when applied to these sandwiches that are a fusion of different styles, ingredients, or unrelated recipes. Note that I use the term “sandwich” pretty loosely as well.

1. Cubano Corn Dog

Photograph by Drew Swantak.

The delicious Cuban sandwich is made with ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard. American fair fare is made by deep-frying food on a stick. To adapt the Cuban sandwich to the fair food format, Perry Santanachote made the shredded pork, cubed ham, cheese, and pickle relish stick together with gelatin long enough to dip it in cornbread batter and deep-fry it. The gelatin cooks away, but the cornbread shell holds all those ingredients inside. By then it is essentially a corn dog with a much better meat filling. Get the entire recipe at Thrillist. 

2. Funnel Cake Burger

While we’re on fair foods, surely you’ve thought of the versatility of the classic funnel cake. They are fairly flat and can be made in any size, so why not use one for a hamburger bun? Josh at Culinary Brodown explains how to do it, and includes a recipe for a savory funnel cake that has no sugar in it. And a ketchup recipe that does. You can still add powdered sugar if you like your burger on the sweet side, but that’s a matter of preference.

3. Reuben Sandwich Pot Pie

When is a sandwich a pie, and vice-versa? When you want it to be! If you love the taste of a Reuben sandwich, you can make it hot, tasty, and special to impress someone with the Reuben Sandwich Pot Pie from Stef at the Cupcake Project. It’s got the classic corned beef and sauerkraut inside a savory crust made with rye flour, with a Swiss cheese sauce and more rye and Swiss in the crumbly topping.

4. Cheeseburger Pop Tart

Self-described “Burger pervert” Mathew Ramsey of Pornburger managed to make a cheeseburger in the form of a pop tart. No sweets, just all savory burger in a toaster pastry crust.

This after school special is a meme-nto of my childhood: a smashed grass-fed beef patty, with a bacon onion jam, melty cheddar cheese, in a buttery pop tart pastry.

Alas, there are no instructions included for making your own, a fact that had commenters raking him over the coals for. If you can get the ingredients, you can make this your own.

5. Apple Pie Grilled Cheese

Photograph by Drew Swantek.

My mother always loved a slice of cheddar cheese with her apple pie. And she makes a good apple pie. If you appreciate those two flavors together, try an Apple Pie Grilled Cheese. These are small double-crust apple pies that make a sandwich when you put cheese between two of them and melt it. Fancy! Get the complete recipe at Thrillist.

6. Koopa Troopa Bacon Turtle Burger

Ooh, this is a perfect sandwich for a kid’s birthday party, or a video game night! Dress up your bacon turtle burgers as Super Mario Koopa Troopa turtles with colored, edible shells. They’ve got hamburger, hot dogs, and bacon inside and visual appeal outside, so take pictures before you eat them. They won’t last long. Get all the steps for making them at Instructables.

7. Ramen Hoagie Roll

Photograph by Hugh Merwin.

You can put your choice of sandwiches inside ramen noodles when you make a Ramen Hoagie roll. You use two packages of noodles, somewhat cooked, and then formed into a roll shape and baked. It’s a bit crispy, but if you love ramen, this will made a great sandwich with something like Philly cheesesteak or meatballs with marinara or even cold cuts inside.

8. French Fry Hamburger Bun

Why have a side order of fries when you can have them on your burger? Oh, you’re right, that’s a lot of carbs (as if you weren’t getting that with fries on the side). What if you were able to get rid of the bun, and use fries as the bun? Genius. The French Fry Bun is made with real French fries. Nick Chipman at Dude Foods made this by using edible glue to connect a row of fries together long enough to serve a hamburger patty and fixin’s between two of them. If this seems like more trouble than you’d prefer, Chapman also has a scheme for using hash browns for a sandwich bun.

9. Dog in a Dog

This is a fusion of a Dachshund and a hot dog. A wiener dog and a wiener. Dog in a Dog is a hot dog wrapped in dinner roll dough in the shape of a dog. The eyes are cheese and black beans. You may have to do this a few times to get it to look right, but what fun that will be!

10. Cheerios Coated Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Photograph by Yvonne Ruperti.

This sandwich is like combining breakfast and lunch, except that you know as well as I do that a grilled cheese for breakfast and a bowl of cereal any time of the day is perfectly fine. But when you want both, Serious Eats shows us how to encrust a grilled cheese with Cheerios by using melted cheese as the glue. And we can use any excuse to add more melted cheese to a sandwich! You can substitute other kinds of cereals, but I might have to draw the line at using Froot Loops.

11. The Double Decker Mac & Cheese Stuffed Bacon Weave Taco

Nick Chipman at Dude Foods went out on a limb to combine all his favorites into a supreme taco mashup. First he made a couple of bacon weave taco shells, which is bacon, but once it’s woven, can be used to hold other foods in place. Then he put your everyday taco ingredients into one, filled the other with delicious macaroni and cheese, then nested the taco inside the mac-and-cheese taco. The result is the Double Decker Mac & Cheese Stuffed Bacon Weave Taco. It’s a good thing all your favorite foods are in there, because you’ve not only filled your calorie limit for the day, you’ve probably also exceeded your sodium limit for the week.