Recipe: Philly Cheese Steak with Details

Hello,

Here's a rec.food posting from 1994 that is the best description of making a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich I've every seen. I thought you might enjoy it.

Betsy

From: Stan Horwitz
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: Philly Cheese Steaks
Date: 13 Apr 1994 18:58:43 GMT

Kim & Chris Pratt (pratt@olympus.net) wrote:
: Could someone post instructions on how to construct a "Philly
: Cheese Steak Sandwich"?

Here's a copy of the posting that I wrote for this group a few months ago:

As I promiced on rec.food.restaurants, I am posting a recipe for a real
Philadelphia cheese steak sandwhich. Before I get down with the nitty
gritty of the recipe, I am going to explain my "qualifications" for knowing
what a real Phily cheese steak is.

I am a 32 year old male who lived in Philadelphia for 32 years; ever since
my parents gave birth to me. I enjoy cooking, especially cheese steaks
because they're easy and cheap to make. I also rarely make them, unfortunately, because they are one of the most fattening foods I know of. Unfortunately, I also got fat in large part due to cheese steaks since I all but lived off them when I was working on my undergraduate degree some years ago.

Note that I am also not claiming my rendition of a cheese steak is as good
as places such as Pat's, Geno's, and Jim's where the act of cooking Phily
cheese steaks has become an art form. Mine, however, are taste good given
the fact that my ingrendients are probably not nearly as fresh as the pros'.

So here's the recipe for one Philadelphia cheese steak sandwhich:

One hoagie roll (as fresh as possible) sliced the long way, but not split.

Some very thin sliced beef. Sirloin is preferred. This is often called minute
steak. The amount depends on how hungry and big your roll is. I use 1/2 pound.
Since the beef is so thin, you can cook it froozen or thawed, but of course,
fresh is best and this is what the cheese steak pros use.

A little bit of vegetable or olive oil.

Some optional topics such as fried or steamed mushrooms (my favorite), fried
onions, hot or mild peppers, and tomato sauce. Some things you should never
put on a cheese steak (for reasons of tradition) are pickles, slice tomatos,
lettuce, bacon, sausage, salad oil, and some other things which escape me. My
opinion is that most non-Philadelphians botch up their version of Phily
cheese steaks for no other reason that they put these "unwelcome" ingredients
on their cheese steaks in an effort to be fancy or innovative. Don't do it!

Some provalone cheese or cheese whiz. I like provalone. Cheese whiz is very
popular, but I don't like it because it has very little "cheese" taste and
it tends to just run off the sandwhich anyway. The amount of the cheese to
use depends on how much cheese you like. about 2 or 3 slices is fine, at
least according to my taste and since you need to make room in the roll for
the meat anyway.

Okay, so now take a large frying pan (non-stick is best unless you enjoy
scrubbing grungy cookware) and let it get real hot on your range. If your
pan starts smoking, its too hot.

When the pan's hot, turn down the flame to a medium setting and coat the
cooking surface of the pan with olive oil or non-stick spray if you're calory
conscious. Make sure the whole pan's surface is coated because this thin
beef sticks real easy.

Now that you have the pan coated with oil, put it back on the flame and
put in the meat. If you want to be really authentic, as the meet cooks,
tear it up with the sharp end of a plastic or wooden spatula. You don't need
a metal spatula to do this because the meat's thin enough to be pulled apart
by the blunt end of a non-metal spatula and you don't want to harm the pan.
I hope you read this carefully before you start because be warned, the meet
cooks very rapidly. It will only take a minute or two. When the meat is still
slightly pink, gather it into a pile that's small enough to fit under a pot
lid that's smaller than the pan in which the meat's cooking. Add the cheese,
and cover the meat with the lid so the heat gets trapped in around the meat.
Let the stuff cook a few seconds (10 maybe) and then stir up the meat so the
melting cheese gets blended in with the meat. Put the lid back on and let it
cook a few seconds more. The cheese should be thoroughly melted throughout
the meat. You're done with the cooking part now. Oh, if you are adding any
onions or mushrooms or other ingredients, you can add them at the point you
add the cheese, however, many places that cook these for a living add the
optional stuff (except the mushrooms and onions) in the next step. Mushrooms
and onions are best added during the cheese phase for some reason, but other
ingredients are normally added later.

A variation on this method is to remove the meat before you add the cheese
to let the excess oil and fat drain off. You can do this by placing the meat
on a few paper towels so the oil drains out. Put the meat back in the pan and
continue where you left off. If you don't do this, you're going to get a lot
of grease in your sandwhich. Some people like that, actually, most people
like that, but not me. I am posting this touch separately since its not quite
authentic to let the liquid drain from the meat first.

Grab the roll and put the meat and cheese mixture in it. Do so in such a way
that the good stuff is evenly distributed along the length of the roll. Now
put this in a plate and serve it. Service this with french fries, or maybe
potato chips, for a real hearty meal. Sliced pickles or pickle spears are fine
too. Whatever you do, don't put the pickles in the sandwhich as that's not
authentic, IMHO. Don't serve this with a salad or any other healthy side dish.
No one eats a cheese steak from Philadelphia with a salad and this is also
something I have noticed some non-Philaelphians fail to recognize.

Here's another cooking variation:

Cook the meat as described above, however, do not add the cheese at all.
You should not, however, cook the meat all the way through. Let it be slightly
pink on the inside region of the pile of meat. Put this meat in the hoagie
roll, but make sure the pink portion of the meat is on the top of the roll
so you can see it. Add the cheese, AND tomato sauce, and any stuff. Slide
the sandwhich under a hot broiler. Let it sit under the broiler long enough
so the cheese thoroughly melts. Unfortunately, I don't have a broiler that
would serve this purpose so I have never used this variation of cooking method.
You will have to experiment with your broiler so you get it hot enough to do
the cheese melting and toast the roll, but not hot enough to burn the roll.
This is what Philadelphians call a Pizza steak sandwhich. Its also the kind
of thing (thanks to the broiler) that is best made by a pro.

Also realize that like any rendition of a recipe, different restaurants use
slightly different variations on the recipe. Philadelphia cheese steak
emporiums are no exception. We folks in Philadelphia sometimes enter into
debates as to which cheese steak emporium has the best cheese steak. I like
the steaks at many places in Philadelphia, but for some reason, I don't like
Pat's steaks or Geno's (across the street from Pat's) either. My favorite
cheese steak is made by the American Pizza Company in Northeast Philadelphia
however, there are lots of other great cheese steaks to be found here.

Enjoy and get some exercise because this sandwhich is mega fattening.
--
My name is Stan Horwitz and my E-mail address is stan@astro.ocis.temple.edu
My opinions are all mine. They do not reflect those of my employer.