Well, Gore may not like Cheez Whiz, but as a matter of fact, I don't think he's ever had it, as he thought it came out of a can! That's Easy Cheese, close but not the real deal, which is actually why I entered this throwdown. You see, he asked me if it would be possible to get cheese to come out of my steel whipped-cream dispenser, you know, the kind with the CO2 chargers, and I started thinking it through and when I finally thought to ask him why he mentioned that he needed Cheez Whiz for this sandwich. And that's when we made the distinction between the two. Now I try to avoid eating plastic whenever possible, so when there is a healthy alternative, I make my own. Cheez Whiz is pretty straightforward. It can be made with real cheese, like a colby, in this case, grated really finely. Now I'm not a hater. I grew up with all sorts of cheese-like products in the house: Velveeta, American, Squeeze Cheese, Easy cheese and of course Cheez Whiz. My Dad liked cheese, you see, and he liked it with lots of things. He would always grab a wedge of cheese with his apple pie, but if that wasn't available on more then one occasion he would have it with a
scoop of Cheez whiz. He also tried to eat a pot holder once, so he may not be the best one to look to for culinary insight. In any case, I start out with some real colby cheese, finely grated.
I melted this into evaporated milk:
Some recipes call for eggs, but this has a great consistency all by itself, as you'll see. While you're at it, you might like to jazz it up a bit with some sriracha. I added a few doses until the taste was nice.
I wasn't going to do with some store-bought roll, so I made some Italian-style buns:
and I sauteed some onions and red peppers:
Of course I also had some steaks. This is the real dilemma because the standard Philly steak sandwich is made on a griddle and we are required to smoke or grill. Since this is our interpretation, I went with grilling ... and I wasn't going to ruin the ribeyes, so I cooked to medium rare:
It was then just a matter of putting that sandwich together. I sliced the bun down the middle and added a layer of homemade Cheez Whiz to keep the bread from soggying up, even homemade Cheez Whiz acts like an impenetrable shield:
added a layer of meat,
then a layer of onions and peppers,
and finally topped it with more cheese:
Now doesn't that look like the perfect cheese spread, and this tastes like real cheese too!
(Chris, you can use that picture). I only wish I had ever had a real Philly Cheese steak sandwich to know if it tasted like one. If it tastes anything like mine I would Shirley have another.
Thanks for looking!
