PHILLY CHEESESTEAK SANDWICH (Cheese Whiz From Scratch!)

this video is sponsored by fabulous the number one self-care app to help you build better habits and achieve your goals hey what's up in my opinion a great cheesesteak is literally just cheese steak onions and bread so how you combine those four things actually matters a lot today i'm going to show you two ways the first is a more working man's version that's a lot easier to make but super craveable and the second is a fancier chef boy version that's a little bit more maxed out and fully from scratch to get started i'm going to grab one large white onion and give it a medium dice i'm using white onion here over yellow because i found that yellow vidalia style onions were just too candy sweet and tip the balance in the sandwich too far away from savory one large onion is gonna be plenty for four large cheese sticks now to cook this i'm gonna grab my ten inch cast iron pan and preheat it over medium high heat any old ten incher will work here but since i'm gonna be cooking my steaks in cast iron later on i'd figure i'd only get one pan dirty once this pan is preheated i will hit it with a little bit of neutral oil then in goes my diced onions and then a strong pinch of salt i'll stir those to combine until the salt and oil are evenly distributed then i'm going to turn this heat down to low and cook this for about 15 minutes or so or until everything is tender and the onions are starting to take on some color while those cook down i'm gonna grab my beef for this easier version of the sandwich conveniently my grocery store sells this stuff called beef shaved steak and i've got two pounds or one kilo of it here ready to go when they say beef shaved steak it's actually unclear as to what steak they're referring i'm guessing it's not anything expensive like strip or rib eye but it's probably like chuck or flat meat either way it looks fatty enough to make a good cheese steak and it's shaved very thin which i prefer if you don't have access to a shaved beef product like this don't fear part two of this video will give you a few more options to get this stuff ready for the pan i'm gonna run my knife through it one more time to turn these slices into something that kind of resembles a strip smaller pieces are going to give us a more tender looser texture in the final sandwich and help prevent steak from getting dragged out by my teeth during a hefty bite i really hate that once this beef's all chopped up i'm gonna portion it into four 225 gram or roughly eight ounce portions give or take once this beef is all portioned up i'm gonna check back on my onions it's been about 15 minutes and as you can see these are just starting to take on some color and have gotten fully tender i'll mention now that a lot of people would add green or hot peppers in with their onions and if that's what you like i say go for it i'm not here to stop you i'll just say that that's not my truth when it comes to cheese steaks i keep it purely beef cheese bread and onions for now i'll scoot these onions out of the way into a deli container and then preheat my oven to 375f or 190c from here the cheesesteaks are going to come together pretty quickly so we need to make sure that we have everything at the ready for this first version i've got a thinly sliced provolone cheese here at the ready a philadelphia classic i've got some d cellophane slices of white american cheese as well i will not be shamed so don't try i've got four eight ounce portions of beef and then four generic store-bought hoagie rolls these store-bought hoagies are sweeter than i would make them and they aren't super flavorful but they do make for an excellent quick cheesesteak i must admit so try and find something that looks like these do oh and don't forget about your onions those are at the ready as well now i'm gonna grab a paper towel and then turn my cast iron up to high heat and then give it a thorough wipeout to get any oniony stuff out of there once that pan is good and cleaned up and preheated i'm gonna give it a long squiz of neutral high smoke point oil then in goes one portion of my beef you could definitely cook all four of these at once in a 10 inch cast iron but a man can only eat so many cheese sticks you guys so i'm just making one as you can see i've used my spatula to get this beef pressed down into the rough shape of a large hamburger patty and then i hit it with a generous pinch of salt and then a bunch of coarsely ground black pepper like a lot of pepper now i'm going to sear this beef on the first side for about 90 seconds in total or until the bottom has gotten a good crusty sear like this using my spatula i'm going to flip the beef over to get some different beef touching the pan and then i'm going to turn the heat all the way down to low from there i'll toss one of my hokies into my hot oven and get that toasted up while i finish everything else and then in goes a few spoonfuls of onions i'll say two tablespoons is what i like but more isn't bad by any means and from there i'm going to gently cook this beef on low heat stirring constantly we're doing the second half of this process over low heat to avoid drying out the beef when beef is shaped thin it can get pretty leathery pretty fast so i'm gently cooking this for 30 to 40 more seconds or so or until there is barely any pink left once we're there i'm gonna add in two slices of good old white american cheese product right on top using my spatula i'm gonna break that up and give everything a nice toss toss to get the cheese mixed in so it can start to get gooey after about 15 seconds the cheese and the meat are now fully bonded together forever into the thing that we call cheesesteak to build this sandwich i'm gonna grab my hot hoagie out of the oven and then immediately put down two thin slices of provolone cheese next while this meat and cheese is still very hot i'm gonna layer that right on top of the provolone so that it can start to get melted and notice that this meat and cheese looks very juicy still that's thanks to cooking the beef so gently during the second half to finish this little baby i'm gonna wrap it up very tightly with a long piece of parchment paper parchment is useful because it does a lot more than just contain the sandwich it actually unifies everything inside by mushing it together and it brings some much needed structural integrity to an otherwise very sloppy sandwich when i cut into it you can see that the beef cheese and onions have all become one thing and they look super juicy and savory and beefy what i love about this style of cheesesteak is that it requires almost no prep and can be made by literally anybody my dad comes to mind because he basically doesn't cook but loves bombing his guts with various types of meat and cheese he drove a hundred miles to go to a portillos to get cheese fries and an italian beef combo sandwich what an absolute hero so to make a version of the sandwich that i think has more flavor we need to dial up the quality of the beef for that i've got two options the one on the right here is two pounds of 40 day aged hand cut sirloin stick i got this stuff from my butcher friend chris balliard he is the owner of ballyard's medium provisions here in st louis they do whole animal butchery there and their product is really special and of the highest quality i'll throw a link in the description to this shop because if you live in the st louis area you definitely need to check it out when i originally asked chris about rib eye he actually insisted that based on what he had in the shop that day sirloin was actually the way to go for a really great philly cheesesteak and i'll let him explain why i love circles they're delicious they're super tender and this one in particular has got 40 days of dry age on it so it's pretty special and it's gonna be i think it's gonna have more flavor than a rib eye at this point because of the amount of age that's on it as you can see chris hand-cut this stuff because he's a total bad boy but certainly you could ask your butcher to throw it on their meat slicer if you're not confident that they can do it by hand on the left i got some ribeye here that i actually sliced myself here in the house but wait how did i do that well i bought the cheapest slicer that they had on amazon it's called the chef man and it's quite plasticky and the long-term durability remains to be seen but for slicing a few pounds of meat at a time at home it should work great warren isn't sold though that it's super safe i know that's why i'm putting these babies on to slice these i'm gonna grab two pounds of rib eyes that i had chilling in the freezer for about 10 minutes keeping them cold firms them up a little bit so they go a little bit easier on the motor of the chef man i slice my rib eyes parallel to the way that the steaks were cut so i'm going against the grain that is the chefy proper way to slice stuff but if it seemed easier you could slice them crosswise like this that's technically with the grain but since this stuff is being sliced so thin it doesn't really matter which way the grain is all in all the chef man did a pretty good job it does kind of feel like a cheap piece of though and it definitely won't last forever but if you do a little bit of slicing at home for like italian beef or pastramis it actually might be worth the 75 bucks i'm definitely stoked to have it and also mention that all meat slicers regardless of price point and quality are a total bummer to clean so be prepared for that now just like the shaved beef product from the first cheese steak i am going to run my knife through this ribeye every inch or so to make sure that it's a little bit more broken down for the sandwich and there we go i'm going to throw these beefs back in the fridge to keep them chilling while i quickly thank the sponsor of this video fabulous fabulous makes it easy for anyone to develop and stick to healthy habits thanks to science-backed daily routines the way it works is you download the app take a short quiz about what types of habits you want to form what your goals are and what changes you want to see then the app provides all the tools you need to meet those goals some of the ones that i've been working on have been shutting down screens after 7 pm tracking my morning meditations and taking part in a no sugar challenge over the weekend there's also a feature called journeys which is a little bit more of a long-form habit formation situation that's where you build complementary habits all at once like overall how to eat healthier or how to start and keep an exercise habit there's also a huge focus on coaching inside of the app if you want it one of the reasons i chose fabulous over other apps is that you can make it really personal i think for me being self-guided works a little bit better but if you need all that coaching you can get as much as you want i also really like the heavy emphasis on behavioral science for me that makes building habits a lot more manageable so to start building a better daily routine the first 100 people who click the link in my description will get 25 off their fabulous subscription link in the description give it a try 25 off thank you fabulous now we got to this point in the video and you thought that i was not going to pay tribute to cheese whiz think again one last bit of prep before making the sammies is to make a from scratch gooey sharp cheddar cheese sauce the first step towards that is to grate 8 ounces or 220 grams of sharp cheddar this cheese was labeled extra sharp in the store that means it has a very low moisture content and we need to get a little bit creative on the sauce to keep it from getting grainy once that's grated i'll load it into a 10 inch pan this is nonstick but regular stainless would definitely work behind that 10 grams of cornstarch then i'll give the shredded cheese a toss to get it well coated i'm using cornstarch here instead of a roux because it's a lot easier and higher strength it's kind of like my insta root next thing is 240 grams of evaporated milk regular milk won't work here because it doesn't have enough protein to achieve an unbroken sauce once everything is combined i'm gonna move it over to the stove and melt it together over very gentle heat the canned cheese product that you see on most cheesesteaks is full of additional emulsifiers and salts to stay fully liquid at a variety of temperatures and i'm fine with that the thing that bums me out about it is it does not really taste like cheese making our own cheese sauce gives us that gooey gloppy texture that we want but we actually get some real cheddar flavor with some age on it in there after four to five minutes of stirring this pretty frequently over low heat this should have coalesced into a molten golden sauce like this if yours is a little bit grainy here don't sweat it there should be some more evaporated milk in that can and add that that brings some extra protein and water that makes that fat easier to emulsify once that's stirred in that's it in five minutes you've basically made a perfect unbreakable cheese sauce that is going to be great slopped on all kinds of things like cheese fries or nachos and if you're feeling like an absolute frickin psycho add in some pepper jack and some chopped jalapenos and see how you like that thanks to culinary bad boy kenji lopez all for the recipe here and as always i will link to his article on cheese sauce in the description now once i've got this cheese covered i'm going to set it aside for a few minutes while i get everything sorted for my sandwich quick inventory here i've got two portions of sirloin two portions of rib eye i'm gonna cook both to see which one i like more i've got the onions same as before and i've got a couple of my homemade sesame hoagies the best looking cheesesteaks on the internet that i've seen use an italian style sesame hoagie roll and so i took my hoagie roll formula enrolled in sesame seeds the full process and recipe will be below in the description along with a link to my italian beef video where i go fully in depth on how to make proper perfect hoagies at home to make these steaks i'm going to create my 10 inch cast iron pan once again over high heat once that's hot in goes a long squeezer of neutral oil and then in goes my sirloin i'll use my spatula now to press this into a large burger patty shape that's kind of flat then i'll give it some aggressive salt and pepper i'll sear this for about 90 seconds or so to develop some good crust on the first side and right away i noticed that this beef has a pretty low water content from all that dry aging that should theoretically lead to beef with more flavor but we'll see once i've got a good crusty sear on the first side i'll come back and add about 2 tablespoons or 20 grams of onion and then the heat goes to low i'll spread the meat out in the pan and cook this on low very gently until this beef has just about lost all of its pinkness that should take about 60 seconds or so while that beef finishes cooking i'll mention that i'm slowly reheating my cheese sauce on the other burner and i dropped a sesame hokey into the oven to warm up my cheese sauce got a little bit cold because i was filming that's no big deal i added a little bit more evaporated milk as i brought it up and in no time it'll be back to a yellow saucy goop back at the beef things are looking great it's been cooking over low heat for about 60 seconds or so i'll give it a quick taste to see how i did on seasoning and that tastes great i'll snatch out my hoagie from the oven and now let's build a sandwich the first move here is to lay down a generous amount of cheese sauce right onto that sesame hoagie don't be shy i'm certainly not then down goes my sirloin onion mixture and i'll mention that 8 ounces or 225 grams of meat here will just about fill a 8 inch hoagie to the max this thing is very full to finish i'll hit it with another long drizz of sharp cheddar cheese sauce and just like before i'm gonna grab a long parchment paper and wrap this thing up like the present that it is these sloppy sammies without parchment paper are a total bummer to eat and they generally just fall apart and there we go sirloin cheese steak right off the bat this sandwich looks a lot steakier than the first one but it looks just as gooey just in a lot more of a yellow way the sesame roll here is just a little bit crisp on the edges and the inside is all soft and steamy from the moisture of that cheese and hot steak before i give you my thoughts on this sirloin version though i'm going to cook some sliced ribeye in the exact same way that's a hot pan for 90 seconds i'll add in the onions and then finish on low heat for 60. once it's looking all good and rendered like this i'm gonna move it to a roll and then top it with a bunch of hot yellow when i got into it you can see this rib eye version definitely looks like a traditional steak sandwich i generally like things a little bit more shaved than that when it comes to cheesesteak but let's see how they stack up this is the sirloin and this is the ribeye and i'm gonna taste them both and let you know what i think whoa [Music] i thought the sirloin was beefier overall and had a lot more flavor but the ribeye was definitely really fatty and succulent in a pleasant way but it wasn't that beefy so for my money i'm gonna go with the butcher shop hand cut sirloin for now but all three of these cheese steaks that i made in this video are quite sick if you like me don't have access to a good one in your area i really hope you give any one of these three sammies a try soon i apologize in advance to your bowels let's eat this thing [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 1,030,607

Keywords: Philly cheesesteak sandwich, Philly cheesesteak, cheesesteak, cheesesteak sandwich, easy Philly cheesesteak, Philly cheesesteak from scratch, cheese whiz, provolone, how to make cheesesteak, philadelphia cheesesteak, steak sanwich, steak sandwich recipe, homemade cheesesauce, cheese sauce recipe, homemade cheese whiz, sandwich recipe, Brian lagerstrom, weeds and sardines, cooking, recipes

Id: VtLzdBQh4WE

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 16 2021