Happy Beefday To Me

There comes a time in one’s life when one has been putting off doing a thing or maybe even multiple things for a while, and then at some point one realizes how little time that one has left to do this thing, and one knows, deep down in one’s heart, that one must rise to the occasion and do just enough of a thing to get by. It was from just such a situation which arose my decision to take a lazy Sunday, a Sunday which happened to be the very last day of November, and spend this Sunday preparing and consuming three different sandwiches from The List.

I guess you could say it started with Jim’s post on the 21st. I saw the post and though, “Oh yeah, I gotta put together a post or two for this month.” Then I looked at the date. “Oh goddammit. It’s the 21st already?” With a long holiday weekend fast approaching, with travel time and many meals that aren’t necessarily conducive to sandwiching, I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to cram in, if anything. But then last night as I sat at the bar, exchanging thoughts with a glass of Pabst Blue Ribbon, I thought, “All the sandwiches this month involve beef. Maybe I could just make some beef and eat all the sandwiches in one day.”

It very likely wouldn’t be pretty, but it just might have to do.

Luckily for my lazy disposition, and as is par for the course of this whole silly project so far, Jim had already done most of the leg work. I re-skimmed his wonderfully informative posts, and put together a shopping list and something that could be mistaken for a plan.

One nice thing about living in Nebraska: a couple of great looking sirloins like these will only set you back 6 bucks and change.

Beef on Weck is going to need some au jus. I don’t have any beef stock on hand, so I’ll throw something in the crock pot to come up with au jus. Figuring that the this component of the Beef on Weck sandwich would take the longest to prepare, I decided on eating that one last. And cooking the roast for the Bauru would take a little while as well, so that sandwich will be later, but not as far later as the Beef on Weck. The Barros Luco, though, seems pretty straightforward, at least in it’s original form, so if I keep it simple, I should be able to whip up one of those babies pretty quickly. So it begins…

Sandwich #1: Barros Luco

I started with one of those nice half-pound sirloin steaks, seasoned it with a simple sprinkle of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Drizzled enough canola oil into a frying pan to barely coat the bottom, and placed said pan on a hot stove. In the meantime, I cranked the oven up to 500 or so, split bolillo #1, threw it into a shallow roasting pan, and into the oven. Once the frying pan was intimidatingly hot, I dropped in the sirloin. Thirty seconds on one side, flip, thirty seconds, flip again, thirty seconds, flip again, thirty seconds, and we’re done. Pull it out of the pan, let it rest for a few minutes, and then slice.

This, my friends, is how you cook a good goddamn steak.

Hot fucking damn, I couldn’t have asked for this to come out better. A bit of char around the edge, and the middle just barely warmed up. It took a whole lot of willpower to not just scarf down this steak as I sliced it (Okay, I did eat a couple pieces, and GODDAMN, that was some pure, distilled beefy flavor). But onward I forged! I sliced the whole steak, and then cut the slices in half so as to have chunks of meat that are more sandwich-friendly, ie, wouldn’t pull the entire contents of the sandwich out of the sandwich upon taking a bite. Now we just have to melt the cheese. Back into the frying pan went the meat, sliced gouda on top, and a splash of a cheap but surprisingly decent red wine to create some steam, and then the lid. Wait just long enough for the wine to all steam off, and take everything off the heat. Pull the toasted bolillo out of the oven, and we’re ready for action.

The picture is crappy, but you get the idea. Gooey melty cheese, still-rare steak, and the bread came out toasted to a nice crisp, but with still-chewy interior.

Now listen. This sandwich was incredible. This sandwich was the perfect illustration of beauty-in-simplicity. Would some avocado have tasted great on this sandwich? Well sure it would have. Or some caramelized onions? Of course it would have been good! But none of those things were the least bit necessary. This was just a great steak and cheese sandwich where the steak and the cheese both tasted every bit as wonderful as steak and cheese are capable of tasting. In fact, when I first cut my steak, I decided that I’d likely cook the other steak the exact same way for supper tomorrow and eat it as a steak, but after eating the Barros Luco I’ve decided that no, perhaps I should instead make another Barros Luco with the other steak.

Sandwich #1: Success!
Sandwich #2: Bauru

Next up is the Bauru. I didn’t do a whole lot differently from what Jim did as far as this one goes. I roasted some eye of round, sliced it as thinly as I could with my clumsy opposable thumbs (I don’t have access to a fancy slicer), threw it on a bolillo roll, and I opted to melted the cheese in the oven instead of a double boiler. I started with about a 2 lb roast, lopped off about a third of it for au jus making, and the rest went into a baking pan with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a splash of cheap but surprisingly decent red wine. I blasted the thing on high heat (475 or so?) for an amount of time I didn’t really keep track of. I pulled it out of the oven when it just felt right in my heart and soul to do so, and it temped out around 130. Medium rare. It’s a little more done than I was shooting for, but should still be delicious. I sliced the roast as thinly as my under the influence of one glass of cheap but surprisingly decent wine and two beers hands would allow, and it looked great. A taste test confirmed that the taste matched the look. I threw bolillo #2 into the oven for a few minutes to crisp it up, then split it, and dug out some of the crumb. Besides the meat, bread, and cheese, the only other components are pickles and tomatoes. I sliced a Roma tomato, and threw on a few of my own homemade pickles, cucumbers pickled with fresh basil and black pepper.

Sidebar: As this is the first time during the list that I’m making a sandwich that specifically requires the addition of tomatoes, I feel that I should qualify my feelings on tomatoes. While I’m generally okay with tomatoes as a thing, I don’t much care for them on sandwiches. So often, tomatoes get bruised and mushy, or just have a mealy texture that I just don’t care for. Furthermore, they often cause a sandwich to become slippery in the presence of other toppings (specifically lettuce or any other sort of leaf vegetable) and difficult to handle, which let’s face it, kind of defeats the purpose of a sandwich. The flavor could be anywhere between sweet, vegetal, or tart, and you’ll never know which one until the tomato has oozed its guts all over the rest of the sandwich. Most of the time, I avoid the hassle that comes with tomatoes, because the marginal addition in flavor isn’t worth the trade off in texture, or the risk of less than ideal flavor, or the inability to handle the sandwich. However, in this case, for the sake of the list, there will be tomatoes.

I threw the whole works in the oven to melt the cheese and generally keep the entire product warm. As an added bonus, the time in the oven also served to very slightly roast the tomato, which seemed to take the slippery factor down a fair bit. Once the cheese was satisfactorily melted, it came time to eat my second meal of the day.

Success! Another delicious sandwich! The bread held up well, slightly splitting as I ate the sandwich. The cheese was melty enough that it kept the sandwich from becoming slippery, despite the presence of the pickles and tomatoes. The pickles sort of forced themselves to the forefront, in a very enjoyable way. The acidity cut through the richness of the beef and fresh mozzarella, and the basil flavor in the pickles provided a fresh, clean, herbaceous addition to the sandwich. The tomatoes… well… I barely noticed them, which really is kind of a win relative to how tomatoes usually affect sandwiches. Ultimately, I think I’d have preferred to leave a little more of the internal crumb on the top half of the bread in order to make it stand up a bit better against the moisture from the fresh mozzarella, but overall this was a great sandwich, and another which ultimately extolls the virtues of simplicity. This is just beef, pickles, tomatoes, cheese, and bread, but when everything is done right they all come together really nicely.

Sandwich #2: Success!
Sandwich #3: Beef On Weck

Last, but certainly not least, is the Beef on Weck. At this point in the day, having been simmering in the crock pot over the course of two other sandwiches, the au jus was pretty much ready for action, and I had my roast beef from the Bauru already roasted and carved.

becomes

All that remained was the bread, which has been suggested is the most important part of the Beef On Weck. While I didn’t go so far as to make kummelweck from scratch, I had a rough concept in mind that I think got me close enough. Keeping with what may or may not be a theme with these sandwiches, my idea would be quick and easy. I bought a package of rolls from the grocery store labeled “Homestyle Yeast Rolls” which looked very similar to kaiser rolls and/or kummelweck without the salt and caraway. They were on a shelf right next to “Hard, Crusty Italian Rolls” so I assumed these must be in a similar bread genre. I figured I could take one of these babies, wash the top with some butter, sprinkle on some salt and caraway, pop it into the oven for a few minutes, and I’d be pretty close.

Looks pretty decent, yeah?

Well, without having ever tried proper kummelweck, I have no frame of reference, but I feel like I did indeed get pretty close. I pretty much nailed the way I had pictured it working out, at least. The outside was thin, but crusty and the salt and caraway were firmly affixed to the bread. The inside was very light and pillowy, and I was worried about it standing up to some already juicy roast beef, and then being dunked into au jus. These fears would be short lived. I took the rest of my sliced up round roast from earlier and dipped it into the simmering crockpot for a quick warmer-upper, and threw it on the bottom of the bun. A schmear of horseradish for the top, and I was just about ready for action. I had de-glazed the pan in which the roast had been cooked with some more of the cheap but surprisingly decent red wine, and mixed that with some of the braising liquid from the crockpot (which was itself a combination of cheap but surprisingly decent red wine, Worchestershire sauce, olive oil, and whatever cooked out of the hunk of round roast, onions, and garlic which were submerged therein).

I took the first bite without dipping, and was impressed. The caraway and horseradish complemented each other nicely, and the beef was moist and delicious. The bottom half of the roll was just crispy enough to hold its own agains the most contents. Dunking the sandwich in the au jus simply provided even more beefy flavor, and made the bread only slightly less chewy. Truth be told, I think I’d prefer to really drench the beef in au jus before adding it to the bread rather than dunking the whole works into the jus. This is an unusual stance for me to take. Philosophically speaking, I am one hundred percent in favor of dunking things into beef flavored liquid. But for the sake of balance on this particular sandwich, it felt like less could have been more. Although, with lesser beef, I can see how dunking would absolutely propel this sandwich. Ultimately, though, I do believe I’ve got success number three on the day.

Sandwich #3: Success!

Oh, and I understand I’m supposed to wash this down with a nice, crisp beer. I may have slightly missed the mark on that part.

Procrastination: Does it pay off? I ate three delicious sandwiches today as a result of procrastination, so I have to say that evidence thus far suggests that yes, procrastinating is a very rewarding system. We’ll explore this topic further in my next post, tentatively scheduled for December 31st, 2022, when I will be making and eating the next 291 sandwiches from The List.

VanDiagram