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.
Like most foods, foods taste better after they intermingle over time, sometimes in a refrigerator overnight , a slow simmer, or covered for 5 mins after cooking. Science is cool.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I agree also. I upped my sandwich game a few years ago by buying a box of 1000 10”x10” sandwich wrap paper. I use it making burritos and sandwiches all the time, breakfast sandwiches also.
I’m watched these all last year and since I’m feeling a cheesesteak resurgence lately, these guys tests are more helpful now than ever for understanding what I’m looking for in MN (out of 5 places) on an upcoming trip and cheat meal weekend! 😂 I forgot you covered chuck eye, and I wondered if some had considered that over sirloin.. but your video answered that. Thanks Charlie.
* 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. *
@@evilstorm5954 I sliced a chunk of my thumb off the first time I used a mandolin slicer. It is very easy to do a lot of damage in just 1 swipe if you aren't careful with those things.
Don't be a moron - ronc4146 is right, and mandolins can & will *easily* hurt a newcomer, especially if they're handling something hard but slippery, like frozen meat. There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking some precautions, and only a fool or a troll would mock it. There's a reason they sell mandolin safety equipment, but don't bother advertising the gloves for just using normal knives. Mandolins. Bite.
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.
Cheese gets laid on the beef to begin to melt. Bread gets "butterflied" and laid on the pile then everything is scooped and turned over. Brought to the counter to add any extras and wrapped.
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%.
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
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!
Have tried reproducing these same tests in the quest to improve my home made sandwiches... You started down this track but stopped just short of the solution. You're correct on the mixed cooking of fully frozen or near frozen meat but this also applies to onions. When the well known shops cook, it's for mass orders.. they are mixing the well browned bits of onions and meat with lesser cooked or steamed vs hard frying in the aggregate. Remember that the meat's continued cooking and onions browning create a fond on griddle essential to the "real flavor" we all want. We all used to complain whenever one of the junior guys messed up the griddle and spent too much time on the phone talking while food burned.. Then they'd have to steam clean and scrape the griddle to get rid of nasty burned tastes, and rebuild that seasoned flavor all over again ! Lots of these places cook eggs etc and pancakes for AM meals too adding to that flavor imo. Just subscribed btw
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. 🤟
In Philly its ribeye. All the places you mentioned are tops. Plenty of other great places around Philly, S. Jersey, down to the shore. You always know when its not ribeye, I never go back to those places.
I had this experience with trying to sear off thin beef when I started making gyudon at home. sure the final product is quite different, but they typically use very similar thinly sliced beef. most of the recipes I found didn't call for any sear at all. but, coming from a pretty typical western cooking background (and having never had the dish prior to attempting to make it), unseared beef was simply unacceptable to me. so I tried a few times to get some color on it before building the dish. major mistake, it was dry and chewy every time. I've found that adding it as the _very_ last step, and simmering it only until it's no longer visibly pink was The Way (for me at least, for now) to keep it tender and juicy. a restaurant I was working at (really a wing place, but made a surprisingly tasty cheesesteak) also took blocks of fully-frozen thinly sliced beef and cooked them over moderate heat until cooked through and a bit browned on the outside. in spite of being a pretty low-effort addition to the menu (and definitely not using especially nice beef), it was actually one of the better cheesesteaks I've had. maybe not _best,_ but top 5-10 easily.
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.
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.
This is not something I know a lot about, but I've seen some cooks use baking soda in place of salt when searing beef. Well, I guess I've only seen that done on ground beef, but it managed to get some of the crust on ground chuck that you can't normally get when browning up a pan full of ground meat, and it didn't dry things out, either. I wonder if that could help with thinly sliced beef in the same way. Seems like it could. I dunno. I'll just leave this here and...
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.)
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
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.
Those break away steaks are named that because they are made by taking very thinly sliced beef into a large roast shape pressing it very firmly and freezing it. Later they slice it into approximately 1 inch slices and sell it commercially in steak size. THATS WHY it would break up as you cook it like you remember.
@@13Voodoobilly69 I was wondering how that was happening when I slapped them on the griddle! Back then I was in my early 20s, young and no real xp in the culinary arts and I would often think back and wonder HTH these steaks would just perfectly break apart on the griddle *while still frozen* like magic. Thanks for the knowledge!
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 🤮
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.
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
try sirloin flap! i lived in philly a while back and love me a good cheesesteak. where im at now i do a texas spin on one and i use sirloin flap ans it works great
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.
I am led to believe you choose no catchup or mustard. IF you choose one, add it to the steak on the grill/pan when it is nearly done and mix it into the meat. It is much different than squirting it on later. Instead of cheese sauce, configure the beef to the dimensions of the open, picked and toasting roll. While the meat is on the grill, add your favorite cheese on top, provolone, Jack...w/e and assemble.
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
100% this. If you want a real Philly cheesesteak you got to do it right or go to the right place. When i want a real Philly cheesesteak i go to Subway. Wawa is also pretty good and they make the best NY style pizza but only after 4 pm.
Just like you can’t Italian beef outside Chicago tried it hella times since moving never the same as ordering from Back home Cooking low and slow is the Philly way to keep the juice when so thin
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Brian Lagerstrom just dropped a Mongolian beef video that uses cornstarch (20g/kg) to hold moisture, besides the staple baking soda (1/4 tsp/kg) to tenderize, and MSG (5g/kg). I've never been to Philly, but it seems like a great idea.
I'm from Philly and make Cheesesteaks. Shaved top sirloin. No green peppers. We use hots ,sweets or banana peppers. American cheese. Cheese wiz is a tourist thing because of tourist traps pat's and geno's.
omg.. this isn't that complicated... here.. 1) you need to freeze the meat to slice it thin. not lean, not too fatty, in the middle. 2) you need to start cooking the meat and the onions at the same time. 3) salt, pepper, and if you like a little sprinkle of garlic powder ad it at the beginning, end, doesn't matter. 4) you need chop up the meat and pull it apart as you're cooking it. 5) half way you need to put the meat on top of the onions and let it cook. This will let you get the onions to a good caramelization. 6) chop up more and mix together. 7) you need to add the cheese when there is enough steam coming off to melt the cheese, but not so much that it waters down the melted cheese. and then you put it in the roll... DONE!!! He is spot on with the roll breading being removed.,.. the crust of the bread is what you want. The bread is key, because, you need the right texture crust to hold together without being crispy. THAT"S IT!!! it's not hard, we used to make hundreds of sandwiches a week back in Philly.... it's not rocket science. The biggest problem I see in getting a good cheese steak out side of the NE.. is the meat. The distributors sell the pizza places cheap meat, with too much fat and added water!!! It's CRAP!!! you have to get your own meat and slice it at home. When I make them, I use a a big cast iron plate and put it on the gas grill and cook them outside. More room, more temp control with the gas, and it gives you good hot spots to move the meat and onions too. You want to be chopping and searing and you can only do that with a lower temp if you're moving the meat around to different hot spots to get a little sear and a low temp cook.
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.
Disclaimer here: I have just gone to the now reopened “Jim’s” on South St. (Philly) maybe a month ago. One of the WORST cheese steaks ever in my experience. I am a Jersey girl so I’ve been over quite often in my lifetime. Never have I ever even on a drunk night did I stop for Jim’s. Always smelled great because of the onions I guess. (Back then I despised onions. Feared bitting into one on my sandwich so it was a NO for me and they are chunky/ cubed cut). I recently took a late food ride with friends and that’s where we ended up. Fine, I’ll try it… @$18 for a water bath cheesesteak plus a bottled soda. I got American wit peppers/ onions (not sautéed into the meat btw). It was a complete pile on of hot water kettle flavorless meat, cheese not quite melted, steamed onions and wet drippin basin sittin sweet/hot peppers. It’s not it y’all, the steak is not steakin. So thankful for Lorenzo’s that night & this video tonight. Don’t just throw y’all money away because of the name of an establishment. Get cookin in yall own kitchens and explore what magic you can create….We up & I’m out.
Will admit to never having a real Philly cheesesteak. In my mind, I always thought it was supposed to be a 'working man's' sandwich. But once you start using dry aged strip or ribeye.....you're talking some serious coin. Good beef is really expensive. However....I appreciate the attention to detail and as someone else noted, the willingness to admit when you have gone astray. As someone fairly serious about good cooking as a passion, I've certainly had my share of misfires before I got things right. Love the channel.
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.
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.
Cant high temp thin meat. You dont want it to be too trimmed because the fat makes it moist and flavorful. Thats why burgers arent good at 90% The other point is most people cant afford the ribeye that needed to make the orginal.
If you are making it for yourself at home, make it the way you want it with the ingredients you want or have. But when you go to a restaurant and they say it's a Philly Cheesesteak, it better be done the right way.
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.
I’m an Aussie, never been to America but have made this at home. Yo need to see your butcher and have a chat, get them to 3/4 freeze a ribeye and slice it thin for you. The fat in the meat is the secret ingredient. You need real slices of Priceline cheese, and real pickles. The last thing is the freshest bread rolls you can get. Cooking onions with the steak then letting the cheese melt in when nearly done is essential as well as BUTTERING the bread before building the cheese steak then adding the pickles. Damn I’m hungry now.
He could CALL it authentic, but in reality it is nothing close to authentic... just like all the other "authentic" pizza and cheesesteak shops on the west coast.
Questions: What, specifically, was your slicing and freezing process? Did you freeze the steaks then slice? Did you freeze after slicing? Did you do both, freeze before and after slicing?
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
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.
Plot twist, he knew it all along and wanted double the views. Jk
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.
It's not uncommon in food testing videos actually
@@cognitivedisruption5375 I uploaded a video to your channel. Youre welcome!
I like this guy. He seems like a real human bean.
wrapping food 100% changes it.. the steam works into the bread. Its not just the texture but the smell gets into the bread. Smell effects taste.
Like most foods, foods taste better after they intermingle over time, sometimes in a refrigerator overnight , a slow simmer, or covered for 5 mins after cooking.
Science is cool.
I love that you make recipe series instead of a slap stick recipe that is almost impossible to replicate at home
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.
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.
Thank you, that means a lot! I’m glad you enjoy the content!
It’s always a good day when Charlie uploads
I always look forward to your videos, Charlie. Your bulldog determination is admirable.
Guess I'll be watching Charlie's new video instead of running to the store.
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.
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.
A wrapped sandwhich is just a soggy mess
Norristown aint philly
I agree also. I upped my sandwich game a few years ago by buying a box of 1000 10”x10” sandwich wrap paper. I use it making burritos and sandwiches all the time, breakfast sandwiches also.
I’m watched these all last year and since I’m feeling a cheesesteak resurgence lately, these guys tests are more helpful now than ever for understanding what I’m looking for in MN (out of 5 places) on an upcoming trip and cheat meal weekend! 😂
I forgot you covered chuck eye, and I wondered if some had considered that over sirloin.. but your video answered that. Thanks Charlie.
* 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. *
Calm down Karen. There are Men watching this and laughing at you.
@@evilstorm5954 I sliced a chunk of my thumb off the first time I used a mandolin slicer. It is very easy to do a lot of damage in just 1 swipe if you aren't careful with those things.
Don't be a moron - ronc4146 is right, and mandolins can & will *easily* hurt a newcomer, especially if they're handling something hard but slippery, like frozen meat. There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking some precautions, and only a fool or a troll would mock it. There's a reason they sell mandolin safety equipment, but don't bother advertising the gloves for just using normal knives. Mandolins. Bite.
@@overseastom harden up princess
@@evilstorm5954 Have fun losing your fingers because you're trying to show off to literally no one. What a little dork you are, yeesh.
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.
Thank you for sharing your trade knowledge. Very much appreciated.
Cheese gets laid on the beef to begin to melt. Bread gets "butterflied" and laid on the pile then everything is scooped and turned over. Brought to the counter to add any extras and wrapped.
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%.
You should probably check out Donkey’s Place in NJ they get the onions perfect
Great content as always. Excited to see the final recipe on this one.
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
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!
Your videos are just... so GOOD! Keep it up Charlie!
Have tried reproducing these same tests in the quest to improve my home made sandwiches... You started down this track but stopped just short of the solution. You're correct on the mixed cooking of fully frozen or near frozen meat but this also applies to onions. When the well known shops cook, it's for mass orders.. they are mixing the well browned bits of onions and meat with lesser cooked or steamed vs hard frying in the aggregate.
Remember that the meat's continued cooking and onions browning create a fond on griddle essential to the "real flavor" we all want. We all used to complain whenever one of the junior guys messed up the griddle and spent too much time on the phone talking while food burned.. Then they'd have to steam clean and scrape the griddle to get rid of nasty burned tastes, and rebuild that seasoned flavor all over again ! Lots of these places cook eggs etc and pancakes for AM meals too adding to that flavor imo. Just subscribed btw
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 really enjoy your videos. They are very thoughtful and well crafted.
That's a ton of work for a 12 min video! Thanks for all this experimenting.
In Philly its ribeye. All the places you mentioned are tops. Plenty of other great places around Philly, S. Jersey, down to the shore. You always know when its not ribeye, I never go back to those places.
I love your dedication to great cooking
I had this experience with trying to sear off thin beef when I started making gyudon at home. sure the final product is quite different, but they typically use very similar thinly sliced beef. most of the recipes I found didn't call for any sear at all. but, coming from a pretty typical western cooking background (and having never had the dish prior to attempting to make it), unseared beef was simply unacceptable to me. so I tried a few times to get some color on it before building the dish. major mistake, it was dry and chewy every time. I've found that adding it as the _very_ last step, and simmering it only until it's no longer visibly pink was The Way (for me at least, for now) to keep it tender and juicy.
a restaurant I was working at (really a wing place, but made a surprisingly tasty cheesesteak) also took blocks of fully-frozen thinly sliced beef and cooked them over moderate heat until cooked through and a bit browned on the outside. in spite of being a pretty low-effort addition to the menu (and definitely not using especially nice beef), it was actually one of the better cheesesteaks I've had. maybe not _best,_ but top 5-10 easily.
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.
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.
This is not something I know a lot about, but I've seen some cooks use baking soda in place of salt when searing beef. Well, I guess I've only seen that done on ground beef, but it managed to get some of the crust on ground chuck that you can't normally get when browning up a pan full of ground meat, and it didn't dry things out, either. I wonder if that could help with thinly sliced beef in the same way. Seems like it could. I dunno. I'll just leave this here and...
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.)
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
I'd really like a final video in this series be a full instructional that combines everything you learned so I can make this at home
Great vids Charlie, you are great man, do you think you could do a prince st pizza copycat, or New Haven apizza?
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.
Those break away steaks are named that because they are made by taking very thinly sliced beef into a large roast shape pressing it very firmly and freezing it. Later they slice it into approximately 1 inch slices and sell it commercially in steak size. THATS WHY it would break up as you cook it like you remember.
@@13Voodoobilly69 I was wondering how that was happening when I slapped them on the griddle!
Back then I was in my early 20s, young and no real xp in the culinary arts and I would often think back and wonder HTH these steaks would just perfectly break apart on the griddle *while still frozen* like magic. Thanks for the knowledge!
Great observations and delivery ! Thanks!
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 🤮
Your use of the mandolin triggers some major PSTD from when I sliced off part of my pinky 😂
Damn, this is good in-depth content and the trial-error focus is really really good :D I'm so stoked the next big food-tuber is from my hometown :D
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.
The rolls are so hard to get right. Jersey mikes are ok but they are actually too big
My first cheesesteak was at the Brass Rail in Allentown in 70s
That technique of hollowing out some of the bread is sometimes referred to as "canoeing."
That's a perfect name :)
Love your content thanks
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
try sirloin flap! i lived in philly a while back and love me a good cheesesteak. where im at now i do a texas spin on one and i use sirloin flap ans it works great
Did you try the roast pork?
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.
I am led to believe you choose no catchup or mustard. IF you choose one, add it to the steak on the grill/pan when it is nearly done and mix it into the meat. It is much different than squirting it on later. Instead of cheese sauce, configure the beef to the dimensions of the open, picked and toasting roll. While the meat is on the grill, add your favorite cheese on top, provolone, Jack...w/e and assemble.
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
100% this. If you want a real Philly cheesesteak you got to do it right or go to the right place. When i want a real Philly cheesesteak i go to Subway. Wawa is also pretty good and they make the best NY style pizza but only after 4 pm.
Best cheese is cooper sharp
Cheese steak arc is getting good keep it up
Just like you can’t Italian beef outside Chicago tried it hella times since moving never the same as ordering from
Back home
Cooking low and slow is the Philly way to keep the juice when so thin
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.
Absolutely not!
Absolutely not!
Another great video - kudos!
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.
Great video! p.s. Did anyone hear about his provolone sauce?
I learned so much from this video thanks
I agree with you I think ribeye is the best
I went to Tony Lukes with friends and all of said, we get way better cheesesteaks back at home in Baltimore
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.
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.
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.
Brian Lagerstrom just dropped a Mongolian beef video that uses cornstarch (20g/kg) to hold moisture, besides the staple baking soda (1/4 tsp/kg) to tenderize, and MSG (5g/kg).
I've never been to Philly, but it seems like a great idea.
No! This is a cheesesteak.
You should try the steak and cheese in Boston!
Great channel Just subbed. How about ranch dressing video?
I love your videos!
I'm from Philly and make Cheesesteaks. Shaved top sirloin. No green peppers. We use hots ,sweets or banana peppers. American cheese. Cheese wiz is a tourist thing because of tourist traps pat's and geno's.
Dude was scaring me with that mandolin. Thought he was going to be making a finger steak for a second.
omg.. this isn't that complicated... here.. 1) you need to freeze the meat to slice it thin. not lean, not too fatty, in the middle. 2) you need to start cooking the meat and the onions at the same time. 3) salt, pepper, and if you like a little sprinkle of garlic powder ad it at the beginning, end, doesn't matter. 4) you need chop up the meat and pull it apart as you're cooking it. 5) half way you need to put the meat on top of the onions and let it cook. This will let you get the onions to a good caramelization. 6) chop up more and mix together. 7) you need to add the cheese when there is enough steam coming off to melt the cheese, but not so much that it waters down the melted cheese. and then you put it in the roll... DONE!!! He is spot on with the roll breading being removed.,.. the crust of the bread is what you want. The bread is key, because, you need the right texture crust to hold together without being crispy. THAT"S IT!!! it's not hard, we used to make hundreds of sandwiches a week back in Philly.... it's not rocket science. The biggest problem I see in getting a good cheese steak out side of the NE.. is the meat. The distributors sell the pizza places cheap meat, with too much fat and added water!!! It's CRAP!!! you have to get your own meat and slice it at home. When I make them, I use a a big cast iron plate and put it on the gas grill and cook them outside. More room, more temp control with the gas, and it gives you good hot spots to move the meat and onions too. You want to be chopping and searing and you can only do that with a lower temp if you're moving the meat around to different hot spots to get a little sear and a low temp cook.
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.
The oil has to be 51 degrees exactly.
Disclaimer here: I have just gone to the now reopened “Jim’s” on South St. (Philly) maybe a month ago. One of the WORST cheese steaks ever in my experience. I am a Jersey girl so I’ve been over quite often in my lifetime. Never have I ever even on a drunk night did I stop for Jim’s. Always smelled great because of the onions I guess. (Back then I despised onions. Feared bitting into one on my sandwich so it was a NO for me and they are chunky/ cubed cut). I recently took a late food ride with friends and that’s where we ended up. Fine, I’ll try it… @$18 for a water bath cheesesteak plus a bottled soda. I got American wit peppers/ onions (not sautéed into the meat btw). It was a complete pile on of hot water kettle flavorless meat, cheese not quite melted, steamed onions and wet drippin basin sittin sweet/hot peppers. It’s not it y’all, the steak is not steakin. So thankful for Lorenzo’s that night & this video tonight. Don’t just throw y’all money away because of the name of an establishment. Get cookin in yall own kitchens and explore what magic you can create….We up & I’m out.
Well I heard low and slow and don't add salt till the end as salt draws the moisture out.
They’re partly steaming or stewing the beef
Will admit to never having a real Philly cheesesteak. In my mind, I always thought it was supposed to be a 'working man's' sandwich. But once you start using dry aged strip or ribeye.....you're talking some serious coin. Good beef is really expensive. However....I appreciate the attention to detail and as someone else noted, the willingness to admit when you have gone astray. As someone fairly serious about good cooking as a passion, I've certainly had my share of misfires before I got things right. Love the channel.
Im sitting here watching this eating a cheesesteak from dalessandros🤣😂 lucky me, outsiders just cant get it right 🤣
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.
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.
A lot of places use a combination of ribeye and sirloin.
Cant high temp thin meat. You dont want it to be too trimmed because the fat makes it moist and flavorful. Thats why burgers arent good at 90%
The other point is most people cant afford the ribeye that needed to make the orginal.
I find burgers are good when lil frozen as well even on the grill
My #fav cut is ny strip i like it more then ribeye because it taste beefier
Claymont steaks is surprisingly good - tourists will never go there lol
The best cheese steak you'll ever eat is the one you make with your own homemade rolls.
needs peppers and definitely RibEye and American cheese slices.
If you are making it for yourself at home, make it the way you want it with the ingredients you want or have.
But when you go to a restaurant and they say it's a Philly Cheesesteak, it better be done the right way.
Gotta scoop the roll
Fire content brutha
Jim’s is the best, some of the places I won’t mention you can still see the whip marks in the meat from the jockey 😂
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.
Lol but what about dry aged ribeye:D
I’m an Aussie, never been to America but have made this at home. Yo need to see your butcher and have a chat, get them to 3/4 freeze a ribeye and slice it thin for you. The fat in the meat is the secret ingredient. You need real slices of Priceline cheese, and real pickles. The last thing is the freshest bread rolls you can get. Cooking onions with the steak then letting the cheese melt in when nearly done is essential as well as BUTTERING the bread before building the cheese steak then adding the pickles. Damn I’m hungry now.
Well, the big mistake you made was calling to Philly cheesesteak
There’s no such thing as a Philly cheesesteak
It’s just a cheesesteak
😂🤡
Massive respect to the attention to detail
Even if Americans use the best beef and vegetables they destroy everything with trashy industrial bread…
Ribeye is what you want and you have to season it. Do not cook beyond medium.
This guy could open a CHAIN of restaurants on the West Coast. Call it “City of Big Brotherly Love Apples Authentic Pizza and Cheesesteaks”
He could CALL it authentic, but in reality it is nothing close to authentic... just like all the other "authentic" pizza and cheesesteak shops on the west coast.
Ribeye is the type of meat used!
Surprisingly you ignore some of the very basic cooking techniques. Based on what I'm seeing you will struggle to make a good Philly Cheese Steak.
Questions: What, specifically, was your slicing and freezing process? Did you freeze the steaks then slice? Did you freeze after slicing? Did you do both, freeze before and after slicing?
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
Are those b&ws I spy? Love my 606 s2s... and cheesesteaks
Haha yeah mine are the 607 s2s! They're great speakers
@@CharlieAndersonCooking My man! Keep up the good work with these videos, I'm looking forward to giving this one a go