FamilyManBBQ
is Blowin Smoke!
Been thinking about taking part in a Throwdown for a while now. When I saw the title "Cheesesteak-The Philly" way I knew that the time had come. :grin:
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143691
I spent many years managing, operating and owning a couple of national cheesesteak/grilled sub franchises. These were more mainstream joints...we offered customers "mayo, lettuce and tomato" on every sandwich (blasphemy in Philly, for sure)! :redface:
While we don't make many cheesesteaks at home we are quite fond of a similar style of sandwich...and make them quite often. To be honest, I sure miss the ones I used to have for lunch on almost a daily basis!!
We start with eye of round (used to slice beef knuckle by the farkload back in the day). Seasoned this one with a little Montreal Steak:
On to the mini over some cherry and oak:
Couple hours in the smoke, let it run until mid 130's. Gave it a bit of a rest, then into the fridge for an hour. Wanted to cool it a bit before slicing. Here it is with a few other ingredients:
Usually cut the beef in half prior to slicing:
And then on to the slicer (having liberated one of these from the aforementioned cheesesteak joints...everything comes pre-sliced, pre-portioned these days):
This slicer is awesome!! Much happier with it's home use than when I used to have to slice the beef knuckle, turkey, ham, provolone, swiss and cheddar!! Here's what we end up with:
We did play around with our take on a cheesesteak. First step was to give some onions a couple minutes on the grill (cooked these from raw at the restaurants along with the raw meats). Since the beef was already cooked, and we'd just be heating it up, we wanted to give the onions a bit of a head start:
Added some beef. Wish I could say I was as nifty with the spatulas as I used to be...can't quite pull off the behind-the-back-over-the-shoulder flip like I used to!! I blame the holes in the spatula...used to use a solid one back in the day :becky::
Smoked provolone was our go to cheese at the stores. Use it quite often at home as well. The kids have been quite successful at Kids Q events using it on their burgers also (more on that later):wink::
Never really used cheese whiz at our stores. One of my favorites took simple beef and onions...added some bacon and A-1 sauce. Tried one of these this time around. Hard to see the sauce...it's under the cheese and bacon:
Kept a couple simple also. Just the beef, onions and cheese. Used both provolone and some whiz. Here's how they looked just before they were devoured:
The big winner of the night was the B.O.M.B. philly that we modeled on my son Alex's award winning ($150 bucks at Kids Q is HUGE to an 8-year old) hamburger. It's a Beef, Onion, Mushroom, Bacon sandwich. It's also got what we've come to call "BOMB sauce" a secret combo of a couple of commercial sauces. Makes a dayum fine burger...and we've discovered, a dayum fine sammich too!! :becky:
This was the end of our first night of fun. While we had a great time...me for sure, getting to relive some of the "good times" at work (and got to drop a spatula or two on the ground)...we weren't super thrilled with our B.O.M.B. pics.
The solution? Round two with the leftover beef!! :grin:
Here's a shot of the onions. These are cooked in the same pan used on bacon. They've good a little beef base added to boost the flavor:
And some more onions. This Lodge cast iron griddle is awesome! I'm so glad I got it instead of the Weber Gourmet system with cast iron griddle insert. The Lodge fits a 22.5" grill perfectly...with much more usable surface than the Weber Gourmet.
Buttered and toasted the bun this time around, with a little garlic seasoning for good measure:
Building the B.O.M.B. Used a "burger" bun again. We kind of see this as a fusion of a cheesesteak and my son's self-proclaimed "world famous" burger. Started with a layer of beefy, mushroom goodness:
Next comes the beef/onions hot off the grill. Topped with a couple slices of bacon:
On top of this goes some more onions. And, some "Bomb Sauce."
Put the top of the bun on that bad boy and we were ready to go. Mrs Familyman said "it tastes like heaven." I figured we done good...she's on this green smoothie healthy kick these days. If we could make her forget about the spinach and kale...well, I figure we done pretty good!!
Here's the B.O.M.B. philly-style sandwich...Familyman and kids style:
Check out the throwdown. Here's that link again: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143691
Had a great time feeding the wife, kids and re-living a period of my life. Not a bad way to spend a couple of nights!!
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143691
I spent many years managing, operating and owning a couple of national cheesesteak/grilled sub franchises. These were more mainstream joints...we offered customers "mayo, lettuce and tomato" on every sandwich (blasphemy in Philly, for sure)! :redface:
While we don't make many cheesesteaks at home we are quite fond of a similar style of sandwich...and make them quite often. To be honest, I sure miss the ones I used to have for lunch on almost a daily basis!!
We start with eye of round (used to slice beef knuckle by the farkload back in the day). Seasoned this one with a little Montreal Steak:
On to the mini over some cherry and oak:
Couple hours in the smoke, let it run until mid 130's. Gave it a bit of a rest, then into the fridge for an hour. Wanted to cool it a bit before slicing. Here it is with a few other ingredients:
Usually cut the beef in half prior to slicing:
And then on to the slicer (having liberated one of these from the aforementioned cheesesteak joints...everything comes pre-sliced, pre-portioned these days):
This slicer is awesome!! Much happier with it's home use than when I used to have to slice the beef knuckle, turkey, ham, provolone, swiss and cheddar!! Here's what we end up with:
We did play around with our take on a cheesesteak. First step was to give some onions a couple minutes on the grill (cooked these from raw at the restaurants along with the raw meats). Since the beef was already cooked, and we'd just be heating it up, we wanted to give the onions a bit of a head start:
Added some beef. Wish I could say I was as nifty with the spatulas as I used to be...can't quite pull off the behind-the-back-over-the-shoulder flip like I used to!! I blame the holes in the spatula...used to use a solid one back in the day :becky::
Smoked provolone was our go to cheese at the stores. Use it quite often at home as well. The kids have been quite successful at Kids Q events using it on their burgers also (more on that later):wink::
Never really used cheese whiz at our stores. One of my favorites took simple beef and onions...added some bacon and A-1 sauce. Tried one of these this time around. Hard to see the sauce...it's under the cheese and bacon:
Kept a couple simple also. Just the beef, onions and cheese. Used both provolone and some whiz. Here's how they looked just before they were devoured:
The big winner of the night was the B.O.M.B. philly that we modeled on my son Alex's award winning ($150 bucks at Kids Q is HUGE to an 8-year old) hamburger. It's a Beef, Onion, Mushroom, Bacon sandwich. It's also got what we've come to call "BOMB sauce" a secret combo of a couple of commercial sauces. Makes a dayum fine burger...and we've discovered, a dayum fine sammich too!! :becky:
This was the end of our first night of fun. While we had a great time...me for sure, getting to relive some of the "good times" at work (and got to drop a spatula or two on the ground)...we weren't super thrilled with our B.O.M.B. pics.
The solution? Round two with the leftover beef!! :grin:
Here's a shot of the onions. These are cooked in the same pan used on bacon. They've good a little beef base added to boost the flavor:
And some more onions. This Lodge cast iron griddle is awesome! I'm so glad I got it instead of the Weber Gourmet system with cast iron griddle insert. The Lodge fits a 22.5" grill perfectly...with much more usable surface than the Weber Gourmet.
Buttered and toasted the bun this time around, with a little garlic seasoning for good measure:
Building the B.O.M.B. Used a "burger" bun again. We kind of see this as a fusion of a cheesesteak and my son's self-proclaimed "world famous" burger. Started with a layer of beefy, mushroom goodness:
Next comes the beef/onions hot off the grill. Topped with a couple slices of bacon:
On top of this goes some more onions. And, some "Bomb Sauce."
Put the top of the bun on that bad boy and we were ready to go. Mrs Familyman said "it tastes like heaven." I figured we done good...she's on this green smoothie healthy kick these days. If we could make her forget about the spinach and kale...well, I figure we done pretty good!!
Here's the B.O.M.B. philly-style sandwich...Familyman and kids style:
Check out the throwdown. Here's that link again: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143691
Had a great time feeding the wife, kids and re-living a period of my life. Not a bad way to spend a couple of nights!!
