The “Salty, Beefy, Spicy… Pretty Epically Unhealthy” Beef On Weck

Our final List sandwich this month comes from closer to home than the two South American sandwiches we’ve explored already, but it’s still a regional specialty that doesn’t travel much beyond its native Western New York. The Beef On Weck is essentially a roast beef sandwich, but served on a distinctive enough roll, the kummelweck, that substitutions would not fly. Just as the Barros Luco could only be made with steak and cheese; just like the Bauru is formalized enough to have its own certification program; the Beef on Weck is something I didn’t want to screw up.

To try to make sure I got it right, I chatted with my friend Mike, who had family in the Buffalo area and lived there for several years himself, about the sandwich. What makes a sandwich a Beef On Weck?

“The one thing you absolutely have to get right is the kimmelweck roll,” he said. “The platonic ideal of a beef on weck should be salty, beefy with just a bit of a spicy notes from the caraway and horseradish. It’s good stuff! Though you might want to eat a salad afterwards because the combo of rare beef and loads of salt make them pretty epically unhealthy.”

A good sandwich starts with good bread, and this sandwich required not only good, but distinctive bread. I suppose I could have tried ordering some, but an artisanal bread product isn’t going to travel well either. I’m not much of a baker. If you’ve spent any time reading this blog, I’m sure you’ve picked up on that. But I aspire to be, and this was going to have to be my first real success in that area. If the kummelweck is the distinctive part of this sandwich, I can’t have this sandwich without one, and if I can’t get one, I’ll have to make one. Simple as that.

I found many recipes for these rolls online, and even more instructions for modifying a standard Kaiser roll into a substitute. But this recipe on Food.com looked like it would be the most compatible with my equipment and the ingredients I was able to gather, and if I failed there I could fall back on the half-ass “put salt and caraway on a normal Kaiser roll” method. With normal cooking, I often combine different recipes, but with baking, precision is important, and a tested recipe is your best bet. I’m lazy though, so I use my KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook instead of kneading by hand.

After an initial rise, punchdown, and a brief second rise, I shaped the rolls and let them proof on a cookie sheet, loosely covered in plastic wrap. So far, so good. Even after the first two rises, the rolls still expanded during this stage, and I must be getting better at shaping too, because the surface tension of the rising shaped roll maintained itself nicely.

It ain’t a kummelweck yet

After around a half hour, and with the oven preheated, I brushed the rolls with egg wash, slit a curving X into the top of each, and liberally covered them with coarse sea salt and caraway seeds.

Closer, but still needs baking

I used my fingers to sprinkle water on the rolls before inserting them into the oven. 5 minutes into baking, I sprinkled more water on them, as instructed in the recipe. Then I let them bake for another 20 minutes, with my fingers crossed. As I let the rolls cool on a rack, I was certain I had just had my first major baking success for this site.

Fresh out of the oven

I was right.

The taste of success. It tastes much like salt and caraway.

These rolls are delicious, crusty and brown from the egg wash but with a lighter internal crumb than I’ve been able to achieve before. Still substantial enough to stand up to a heaping wet pile of roast beef though I hoped. What’s more, they were also just damn pretty to look at.

Another beauty shot of the kummelweck

It’s OK if you want to kiss this roll. Salt is bad for your lips though

I had roasted my own beef for the Bauru post and I used the same beef for this sandwich. It wasn’t quite as rare as I pictured from Mike’s description, and it wasn’t cut from the bone, but I hoped it would do.

Yes it looks delicious but this site is not PileOfMeatTribunal.com

I reheated the beef in its jus, added it to the kummelweck roll, and troweled some horseradish on top before dipping the top roll into the jus as well and finishing the sandwich. Reheating the beef does tend to lose it that nice red/pink color but the dripping juiciness goes a long way toward making up for it.

Now we’re talking.

The rare beef does look pretty tasty in the kummelweck roll but the dip in jus makes the sandwich for me.

Cold roast beef looks pretty but give me the jus!

I shared these sandwiches with my family as well. I’m not sure how crusty a normal kummelweck is, but the salt and caraway, if nothing else, give the top bun a crunch that can be softened by a dip in the jus I found, so that’s the way I served them. The response was universally positive. The fourteen year old and the seven year old both refrained from using horseradish but enjoyed dipping in the jus. My wife Mindy knew I’d put effort into multiple facets of the sandwich and was enthusiastic about every aspect. The seventeen year old, though, summed it up thusly: “If I had to pick one thing about this sandwich that makes it stand out to me, it’s the bread.” And without patting myself on the back too much, I have to agree.

I am not going to reference the SNL skit about Hub’s

The Wikipedia page says that the sandwich should be served with pickles, fries, and more jus. Mike has this to add: “It’s absolutely essential to pair a beef on weck with a nice, drinkable beer. The traditional would be a Genesee beer but any nice pilsner or lager that can stand up to the salt and beef will work.” As it happens, I had a beer at home that I brewed I thought should do the trick, a sort of steam beer/Australian lager hybrid (unfortunately) named Chunderstruck.

Beef on weck, with pickle, fries, jus, and beer.

The crisp beer and the briny bite of the pickle made an excellent foil for the richness of the sandwich. The fries were simple fried-from-frozen seasoned fries but I know my way around a fryer so no complaints there either. I ate several of these sandwiches over the course of a couple of days. And yes, I did focus on salads for a few days after that. If spending a few hours per week baking bread and roasting meat is what it will take for me to be able to eat like this regularly, I could do that. Even with the required salad penance afterwards.

Pretty Epically Unhealthy, Mike said, and I get what he’s saying. That could easily be a subtitle of this sandwich quest we’re on, though. The Beef on Weck may be my favorite of the List so far.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who pay attention to our site, we appreciate you! Look for what I imagine will be many many turkey sandwich posts in the days to come!

Jim Behymer

I like sandwiches.

I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great