I'm impressed that someone can admit that they've made a mistake publicly and then go on to try to fix it. Usually people just continue on with their flawed path.
Agreed. Kinda find that sad though, we shouldn’t be impressed by stuff like that, it should be the norm. Why can’t we all just be cool with admitting our mistakes humbly and then improve and move on? Love your comment.
You are right on wrapping it. I used to go to Pudge's cheesteaks in Norristown, PA. The sandwiches were always a little better when you got them to go because they didn't wrap them if you ate them in the restaurant. My grandmother also used to make the best burgers on earth and she'd always wrap them in foil and bring them outside where we were working or playing. I tried and tried to duplicate them with no luck then I wrapped one in foil and left it on the counter for a bit. It still wasn't quite like hers but it was a lot closer.
I started doing this with any sandwiches I made and it greatly improved them. It kinda smashes everything together and forces the flavors to mingle, and it compresses the sandwich so it doesn’t fall apart so easily even if I’ve unwrapped it completely. Cold sandwiches I’ll let sit wrapped for 5-10 minutes.
Been in Philly since 2007. I agree with all your observations about the cheesesteak. You’re approach to learning about the food really shows respect for the culture of wherever you’ve been. And that’s admirable.
I wonder how it would be different if you used the Chinese beef stir fry trick of tossing the thin meat in baking soda first. That would help prevent dry out of less fatty cuts. Then you don't have to worry about the salt drying it out, either.
Found your content a week ago and I can say this is the best cooking channel I've seen. You don't only show us how to make the best dishes, but, like a professional, you also take a lot of time in studying and doing the research to get the best possible results.
* Not sure, but I think I see you wearing a cut resistant glove beneath the blue latex glove. For those not aware of this, PLEASE: use thick, cut-resistant gloves on the mandolin. These are usually made from Kevlar, an Aramid fabric or some other material used to make bulletproof vests. Also, try using a spiked "grabber" (usually called "mandolin safety holders" or "handguards"), usually made of plastic with an ergo style handle on top and small spikes on the bottom. This is held on to the top of the food being sliced to hold it down on the mandolin. The food ends up in between the spiked grabber and the mandolin, adding extra insurance for your fingers. *
Oil on the griddle does two things. 1st it moistens the meat 2nd it gives a much better contact, almost like frying in oil. The trick is, heat up your griddle to high temp, almost before you can see smoke coming of it, then put on the oil and the meat directly without heating up the oil. Cold oil is key and prevents from sticking. Secondly, I would season the meat after the first good sear, as salt pulls out the water and causes dryer meat what we don't want. A thing what I tried out was to use a squeeze bottle with a very very thin broth, and squeeze a little over the meat after browning. Then the cheese melts in the steam and spreads more evenly. I hope you give this a try.
Worked a cheesesteak shop in high school Steak - We would get big ribeye primals and slice them (partially frozen) very thinly on the deli slicer. We also used a flat top with different temperature zones, so that we could do a quick initial (very light) sear before moving over to a cooler temp to finish. We used a very small amount of neutral oil before placing down the beef (like a few drops and then spread around with the spatula). seasoning - we would season the steak in advance (after slicing) and let it reabsorb moisture while in the fridge onions - we would partially cook them and hold them warm in a restaurant container on the side of the flat top until needed. We used a little Country Crock instead of butter when prepping the onions. We were shooting for a sweet sauteed onion that still had a little bit of bite left in it. Wrapping your sandwiches (not just cheesesteaks) always helps make them a little better.
Bro: You're a legend for your dedication to my favorite. Yes: the ribeye, American cheese, and onions, all incorporated with one another, is just so good.
Nice! I think youre really finding something novel in the world of cooking channels which is no easy feat: the trial and error process itself instead of just the final polished product. Really enjoying that aspect and look forward to the amoroso rolls and final conclusions! Side note: Maybe consider buffalo wings next :). I've gotten close to east coast bar quality with those but not quite 100%.
fave new cooking channel, hands down. i'm glad you found the absolute cheat code that is diastatic malt (surprised you didn't come across it in your pizza series, opting for sugar mostly). keep up the insane deep dives, they have already cleared up a lot of stuff for me home cooking wise. (edit: the late seasoning that you mention at 5:40 also has an effect on how much perceived saltiness there is compared to how much salt you use. salting late tends towards more forward saltiness, so maybe he can get away with less salt and the resulting improved moisture while preserving flavor. just my 2 cents.)
Yeah I give it a sear on one side on medium high using a cast iron for 90 secs then move it off the burner to finish with already lightly brown onions and some salt and pepper I use ribeye.
Every sandwich shop that cooked the meats cooked it just to remove the pinkness maybe add some salt during cooking. 80% of the shops started with frozen meat. No one, no one browned the meat since that dried it out. Normally the onions were precooked or thin sliced and cooked with the meat. But if you don't have a good roll your sandwich is doomed. Any good melting cheese is good except cheese wiz 🤮
Just my two cents - they’re cooking a LOT more meat on their griddle and just like an overcrowded pan, it ends up “steaming” and retaining more moisture as well!
Before Hurricane Katrina, I lived in the New Orleans area and worked at a po-boy shop that served Philly Cheesesteaks. They used a type of steak they referred to as " break away steak " and it was perfectly named. It's basically a type of steak that has a lot of fat veins in it that allows it to be split apart on the grill into super thin strips with exceptional ease and the strips are thick enough to get a proper Maillard reaction. I'm no Philly Cheesesteak expert by any means, but just curious about the authenticity of this " break away steak " because tbh, I never really did any research on it after all these years.
A well researched video but one thing I noticed was the finished size of the steak chop. It's important that the steak is finely chopped and the cheese is evenly distributed throughout this makes the bite of the steak much easyer and less messy. Some wouldn't add more than cheese and fried onion's to the steak but try fine chopped hot & sweet peppers or mushrooms. Your steak looks great just chop your steak smaller.
In my experience a mistake a lot of cooks make is trying to chop the steak on the grill. It's not a chopped cheese. It should be pulled apart. I feel like when it gets "chopped" it gets tough and rubbery. If you shimmy it apart with your spatula it pulls the fibers apart which helps retain the juiciness. I might be wrong here but I've had many "best I've ever had" reviews from cheese steak customers.
Charlie,try the velveting technique used by the orientals, who also slice their beef really thin, then in a bowl, add 2 cups of water, 1 tsp. of Baking Soda And stir til BS is dissolved And 1 lb. Of meat of your choice No matter how tough or lean or fatty it is.!! Place in Fridge for an hour. Then wash the meat under cold water 3-4 times to get rid of excess BS, then dry. Cook on searing hot surface for 1/2 min on each side or less.! What does this mean for you current method of preparing the steak.? Well first is that your other ingredients will have to be cooked exactly how you want them, and the cheese sauce also.! Right after you have seared the steak, you can run the pan/surface under hot water to cool the surface which you can then put the meat back on and finely chop, or... Finely chop it before you sear it to begin with, which is my method.!! Either way, recooling the pan will be necessary to be able to thoroughly combine everything together and on to the roll.! I deemed my steak roll as the " Chilly" *Steak and onions*" with additions of chopped green pepper and mushrooms... Chilly--Chinese/Philly method Just a thought...up to you.😇
The sear is very simple. Put one burner at lower temp. and one at a high temp. Start cooking at low temp. and get the meat cut, separated, and fluffed then move the meat to the higher temp. side for only about 10 seconds while tossing the meat constantly. You will get a small sear all over without drying out the meat. I do this with all cuts of meat. Rib eye, chuck eye, and top round being the most common. Top round tends to work better than sirloin for a cheesesteak if you know how to cook it. I agree with pre-seasoning but the timing of seasoning is not nearly as important as being very aware of the specific cooking times using your grill top. Also, for leaner cuts, it's vitally important to add a little fat in to get a good flavor. I use a combo or rendered beef, or worst case, bacon fat and a bit of butter. This really helps to prevent the steak from getting too dry and also improves flavor. Combined with the quick sear, it's pretty amazing what you can do with a cheap top round or sirloin. I can see why you liked the dry aged strip the best but once you get cooking ribeye down, how you chop is super important for it, you likely will end up preferring it overall.
Charlie, love your OCD about Cheesesteaks and everything else you do! I've started wrapping all my sandwiches, kids say it does make the difference at lunch, and their friends are very impressed which helps. What do you find is the best wrap? Are you using the same for cold hoagie vs hot? Thanks in advance! Keep on cooking! Mike
You should hit up a local butcher shop and buy a container of beef tallow. Squirt that on your lean cuts and it will give flavor. Like smashburgers, the flavor comes from cooking in its own fat. For smashburgers you can just use 80/20 burger and there is enough fat there.
Growing up in the land of cheesesteaks before moving to Florida I have to say there are some pretty great cheesesteaks in the sunshine state. There are a couple here in Jacksonville I would put against any top sandwich in the tristate and at least one in hollywood florida.. There are also a couple in the las vegas area that give a good run for the money... great vdo
Thank you so much for this series. I’ve been failing to recreate a Philly Cheesesteak for 15 years since since I left New Jersey for Australia. As soon as you reveal your final recipe I’m giving it a go. 🤟
i admire the commitment to the perfect cheese steak. hes posted like 5 videos on this now. keep going dude. im here for it. how was the cow raised & breed? leave no stone left unturned
Since you’re in Cleveland you have to make a trip down to try a cheese steak from Wario’s Beef and Pork in Columbus. Best cheesesteak in Ohio guaranteed
Nice to hear a lot of the things I do are part of your findings. I too went to philly and did a cheesesteak tour of some of the same places. Dalessandros definitely made me a fan of hot peppers on a philly. My grocery store sells shaved ribeye and that's what I've been using. I cook my onions in a cast iron and push them to the side then put my shaved ribeye in and mince it to smithereens with two spatulas and then season at the end with salt and pepper like Tony luke says, no oil in the pan other than what I used for the onions. I prefer provolone over sauces but that's just me. When I'm done it's so good I swear it came from philly or better 😊. I definitely want to try your roll recipe though.
Jim’s uses Top of the round, fat butchered off then cut into a shape that fits a lunch meat slicer. Jims also cooks with lard not oil, you’ll notice the difference. Cheese sauce should be real Cheez Whiz put on the roll not the meat. Jim’s keeps their Cheez Whiz can on the warm side of the grill to keep it soft.
Ig this sandwich would be REALLY good with baked drybrined pork butt. Freeze the entire thing after it's cooked and slice razor thin on the mandolin. Toast from frizen on a ripping hot cast iron for literal seconds to develop browning.
Another thing maybe worth revisiting is the cheese sauce. Not so much to improve upon your current sauce method, but to show people all the different methods better. Because there are a lot of ways to make a good smooth cheese sauce, and some people may prefer certain ways. Like, sodium citrate is probably the easiest, but not everyone wants to have to rely on a salt bought from amazon. You could have improved your mornay sauce significantly. You said you could taste the flour (you should never be able to taste flour from a roux). You said it was grainy, that actually probably wasn't from the flour, but from some of the cheese proteins not fully emulsifying. Adding eggs in with the cheese (or egg yolks for a more creamy sauce) fixes this problem. A lot of people don't add eggs to their mornay and get this issue. With eggs the mornay sauce will be buttery smooth. You can find some mornay recipe's online with eggs. Anyways, I understand if you don't want to do a mornay. But it's just yet another thing you could revisit and significantly improve. At the end of the day though, it's just a cheese sauce. So really not a huge deal.
You just want to get a slight sear on the steak before pulling or wiggling it apart. Mix the seared meat flavor thoroughly throughout the steak, add and mix previously-fried/sweated onions in the steak just before adding the cheese. Hit the ingredients with a few squirts of water uncovered, cook for 30 seconds, then mix the cheese throughout. The meat should sear/brown for a second time as the cheese melts, which as a nice flavor. Signed, Cheesesteak guru @ Brynn Bradley
I've got a suggestion for you that is similar in result to starting with frozen / chilled meat: Instead of cooking all the meat at once, put maybe 1/4 of it on at high heat. Get some color on it, then add the rest of the meat. That way you end up with the flavor without ruining the overall texture and moisture.
Costco has shabu shabu New York strip. Paper thin begging to be used for Philly steak sandwiches, although shbu shabu is delicious too. They also have a shabu shabu from rib eye that is thin but not as thin as the New York. They used to have sirilon thin sliced frozen just made for Philly steak sandwiches, which are the best and can't be screwed up. My problem is I can't find the perfect roll. And no, I'm not gonna make my own.
hi Charlie here's a trick to try for golden brown steak top and bottom at the same time pre heat a pan or griddle that fits in your oven and use your good old broiler super fast with out killing the beef out of all your clips of cooking on a flat top all i see is un taste gray meat i know its not what ever one else is doing but you might just take the philly cheese steak to a new level give it a shot you can always go back to gray meat
Try toasting the roll for a little bit before adding the meat and cheese. Love Angelo’s, they’re the best IMHO. If you’re ever in Pottstown, PA check out Gazzos steaks. They offer a smoked Cooper sharp cheese which gives the cheese steak very unique flavor.
Not even sure if you can call this a philly cheesesteak but one day i decided i would braise a short rib and slice a scotch fillet to a reasonable bite (not too thin). Cubed the short rib and added it to the pan with the onion after searing the scotch at high heat. Then when it came to adding the cheese i also used some of the gelatinous braising liquid. To this day, the best cheesesteak ive ever had.. but it takes time and isnt the most cost effective.
I think the chuck eye steak could be a viable option if it were marinated with some baking soda first to tenderize it some. It would definitely be the most affordable cut out of all of them.
They have shaved beef, very thin, pre-packaged at my local supermarket. I gave it a try but didn't really like it. Now I think I probably cooked it too hard and fast. I'll give it another try, low and slow, but I think it may still be too lean. I think shaving my own choice strip steaks, which I can get on sale for $6.99/lb, will probably be the way to go. Of course, I'll need to make my own buns as well, because those supermarket ones just don't cut it.
Have you ever had a CheeseSteak done Lebanon Pennsylvania Dutch style. So F@#&ing disgusting. They add tomato sauce and mix it all together on the flattop.🤮
As a South Jersey/Philly boy now in FL it's nice to see this series to give me pointers. That being said, your sauce is probably delicious butbut it's an abomination to a true Philly cheesesteak. It will always be Wiz first and if you don't like Wiz then White American everything else is just wrong. Then steak it's ribeye or nothing. Anything that deviates from those ingredients will make a great steak sandwich, but it's not a Philly.
The problem with Wiz is the stuff you can buy at the supermarket is absolute crap, at least in the states (I think they still have the real stuff in Canada and maybe other countries). The stuff the restaurants buy is the original Wiz, but only available in several pound packages.
@Roger Wilco Jr Very true Charlie did this when he tested tomato for his pizza series if you can getvyou hand on the size 10 can of Wiz it is definitely a different taste.
Charlie, I have enjoyed this and the piz🎉za series. One thing that you didn't think of was, the well seasoned grill. They have been used for years and years. It does make a big difference.
Personally for me rib eye is the only cut for a cheese steak. Nothing else comes close. I’ll eat a cheese steak with other cuts but nothings as good as rib eye. Getting all the high quality components together is key. Cheesesteaks are good in Philly but they’re a little bland. There’s a ton of places in NY state in the 607 and 315 where you can get cheese steaks that are a million times better than anything I’ve had in philly. You’ll find Pizzerias that are better than anything in NYC. Not to mention chicken speidi sandwiches and pizza you’ll only find in the 607/315. If you don’t believe me Go to Binghamton, Syracuse and Cortland NY, do a food tour. You’ll find the best cheesesteaks, speidis, and pizzas you’ve ever had. Guaranteed.
