---
title: '10 Levels of Philly Cheesesteak | With Babish'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=jNan4FWeQEE'
video_id: 'jNan4FWeQEE'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 2827
---

# 10 Levels of Philly Cheesesteak | With Babish

> Source: [10 Levels of Philly Cheesesteak | With Babish](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jNan4FWeQEE)

## Summary

The video presents a ranking of 10 Philly cheesesteak variants, starting from processed frozen options and escalating to homemade and professional creations. It aims to dissect the essence of a true cheesesteak while exploring creative interpretations.

### Key Points

- **Level 1: Guy Fieri's Flavor Town Bowl** [2:01] — Guy Fieri's frozen Tater Tots Bowl scored a 1 out of 10; criticized for microwave-only instructions, soggy tots, and processed beef.
- **Level 2: Hot Pocket Cheesesteak** [3:32] — Hot Pockets are nostalgic but lost their crisping sleeve, leading to a microwaved result with cheese-only filling.
- **Level 3: Steak-ums (Downgraded to Level 2)** [5:29] — Steak-ums are cheap, processed beef strips; high fat content (126% daily value in 1 serving) and poor texture make them a downgrade.
- **Level 4: JTM Kit-Style** [7:49] — JTM Philly Cheesesteak Kit includes frozen ingredients with off-flavor meat and insufficient cheese; still better than lower levels.
- **Level 5: Basic Homemade Cheesesteak** [10:16] — Homemade attempt using pre-shaved beef, bell peppers, onions, and Cheese Whiz; bread hollowed out, wrapped in foil for texture.
- **Level 6: Chicken Cheesesteak** [14:37] — Chicken version with soy sauce, Worcestershire, garlic powder marinade; white American cheese, very juicy and savory.
- **Level 7: Upgraded Homemade (Mandoline Method)** [17:49] — Key technique: freezing skirt steak then shaving on a mandoline yields thin, tender strips. Uses Amaroso's rolls from Philly.
- **Level 8: Danny & Coops (Bradley Cooper's Shop)** [22:02] — Store-bought from Danny & Coops, Bradley Cooper's collaboration; perfectly seasoned, crusty bread, premium taste.
- **Level 9: Korean-Style (with Chef Brian Sa)** [24:30] — Korean-style with bulgogi marinade (soy sauce, pineapple juice, sesame oil), Dutch crunch bread, pickled goose peppers, pear salad.
- **Level 10: Chicago-Style Philly** [32:18] — Chicago-style: prime ribeye dry-brined, slow-roasted, then braised; homemade American cheese (Monterey Jack + provolone); gardiniera for acid.

## Transcript

Philly cheese steak. As chalk full of
beef, cheese, and grease as the city
that bears its name. I love Philly.
Okay. I'm a huge Everybody knows I'm a
huge Flyers fan. Hockey, right? Is that
hockey? They're known for so many great
things. They got the Philly cheese
steak. They got Rocky. They got the
Liberty Bell. I guess it's broken. Ben
Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin. Ah, if you
think that I've insulted Philadelphia,
you ain't seen nothing yet. I'm sorry
ahead of time, but this is 10 levels of
Philly cheese steak.
A big thank you to Cook Unity for
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out.
>> Is Flavortown a place you'd like to
visit?
>> I would not travel to Flavor Town right
now. According to the US travel advisory
website, you should proceed with caution
as there is civil unrest. There is a
lack of indoor plumbing. The water
itself is diarrhea. And on top of that,
the food scene is just not what it used
to be. Level one cheese steak. Where
exactly is the bottom of the barrel in
terms of a cheese steak experience?
Well, I can tell you firsthand. It's
this right here. Guy Fury's Flavor Town
Super Melty Philly Cheese Steak Tots
Bowl. I recently tried this as part of a
frozen dinner ranking over on the Beyond
Babage channel. Uh, and I awarded it a
commensurate score with its quality,
that being a one. It only got a one, not
a zero, because the cheese sauce wasn't
that bad. But everything else was, I
won't say a crime, but a misdemeanor at
least. There are no oven directions. If
you want crispy tater tots, suck my ass.
There's only microwave directions. Right
away, I can tell you the tater tots
might as well be mashed potato. Look at
the way that's come apart. If you look
at this package, it features pieces of
actual beef. And if you look closely at
this, you'll see that the steak bits are
pressed and formed like stums. The
flavor really all you taste is the
cheese sauce and it's not bad. It tastes
like a Vita Rotel queso. The textures
are unforgivable. The tater tots are
ridiculous. They I don't know whose idea
it was to put tater tots in an enclosed
bowl to be microwaved. It is an absolute
crime against Philly, against cheese,
and against steaks. There you are. Level
one Philly cheese steak. About as low as
it goes.
>> Now, I know the whole thing's wrapped up
in nostalgia, but if you had to pick a
favorite part of the Hot Pocket, what
would it be?
>> It's a weird question, but if I had to
pick my favorite part, it is the thing
that is literally wrapped up in, which
is the crisping sleeve. It's a
technological marble and I hope they
never get rid of it. Level two, Philly
cheese steak, specifically hot pockets.
We're taking a step out of the
completely inedible and into borderline
enjoyment. I'm going to get to feel like
I'm back in high school.
This doesn't come with a crisping
sleeve.
This not come with crisping sleeves.
Where's the the crisping sleeve?
Where's the crisping sleeve? There's no
crisping sleeve. What am I to do? They
sure do look different from when I was a
boy. There's this browning and kind of a
sheen to them. It says to do it in an
air fryer, but come on. It's a hot
pocket. It's going in the microwave.
Okay, it's out of the microwave and
we've experienced a small blowout on the
side. That is to be expected. You know
what you have to do with hot pockets?
You need to let them rest. Otherwise,
you will die an untimely death. It will
burn you alive from the inside out. So,
I'm going to spend this time
constructively by examining the not
brief website for why they got rid of
the sleeve. More good stuff. 30% more
pepperoni because they got rid of the
sleeve. We're talking about pepperoni
versus cardboard. This is not a one:one
swap. Less waste. It's legit.
Apparently, 3,300 tons of waste saved
every year from all those Hot Pocket
sleeves you specifically have been
eating. The way our world works is truly
terrifying. So, I'm not going to dig too
deep into it. I'm going to eat this Hot
Pocket. very little in terms of stuff
that isn't cheese. Not a complaint
really. The beef cannot be any better
than what's going on in Guy Fury's tater
tots bowl, but it's chopped into little
itty bitty pieces. So, if it is a little
chewy or whatever, it's basically pre-
chewed for you. As far as level twos go,
big step up and a pretty high four and
how bad things can get. Would I
recommend this as a Philly cheese steak
analog? Absolutely not. This is kind of
its own thing. It's an appropriate level
two.
>> Steak M communicates deliciousness.
>> Steak um communicates
>> steak um communicates what steakums
communicate, which is is this steak um
level three, the hilariously named
steakums. It sounds pensive. It sounds
unsure of itself. It sounds like it's
got a secret. And that secret is that
it's also chopped and formed and sliced
beef. It is not steak. These aren't
pieces of actual steak. That's how it's
so darn cheap. This is probably your
cheapest option. Oh, how do you even get
them apart? Wow. It's been a long time,
I guess. Oh, man. That is a bummer. Just
a slice of lunch meat. Look at that.
Then for bread, we got some of these
kind of grocery store little hogies.
Little little little sub rolls. And for
cheese, of course, we're going to use
unmelted craft singles. Let's put in our
steak. Wow, there's a lot of fat in
that.
Oh, what a horrible thing. I'm going to
drop these in one at a time and then
kind of keep them warm.
So much fat. O, this might need to be
downgraded below hot buckets. I don't
know. I'm going to throw this in the
microwave for just a sec. So, at least
we have melted cheese. But there you
have it. A Stakums Philly cheese steak,
quote unquote. Whoa. A serving size of
Stacums is one piece. That means that
this sandwich is 1,170 calories before
the bread and cheese, which comes out to
99
g of fat. That is 126% of your daily
value just in that beef. I'm sure a lot
of it rendered out and is in the bottom
of that pan right now, but I'm just
looking at the nutrition facts, brother.
That's awful. I I'm inclined to make
this the level two. I don't know. I've
changed ranks rankings in a ranking
episode before in post-prouction, but I
don't know how we're going to do that. I
think I'll just say it. This is the real
level two. This is I'd rather have the
hot pocket than this thing. Downgrade
level two. We'd rather have this than
Guy Fiery's bowl of nightmares, but
there's no way it's better than a Hot
Pocket.
>> What kind of trauma did the person who
invented frozen cheesestake sandwiches
have?
>> Well, they're a human being on Earth, so
I assume that they've experienced a
great deal of trauma. Trauma is not only
common place, it's kind of essential to
the human experience. And it's yielded
some incredible things. Great art,
music, film, and frozen cheese steaks.
Next up, a complete Philly cheese steak
kit in a bag. The hell you say? But
that's what this is. This is the JTM
beef Philly cheese steak kit. Four beef
steaks, sliced and shaped. Four cheese
steak sandwich rolls, diced onions, and
mozzarella cheese. mozzarella cheese. I
bet I'm going to do a lot of things that
will piss off Philadelphiaians in this
episode. None of them will be mozzarella
cheese. This beef is not chopped,
processed. This is sliced steak shaped.
So, I think what we're going to end up
with here is actual strips of actual
beef. It took us four levels to get
there, but I think that's where we are.
There's the rolls. They are pitiful.
There's a big old bag of onions. And
this is a bad sign when there's more
onions than cheese in the Philly cheese
steak. The idea that this is enough
cheese for four cheese steaks does bum
me out. Also, I'm not sure. You either
don't have an expiration date or your
expiration date is wildly confusing or
this is massively expected cuz it says
26 and it is 2026. So, that gives me
some hope. This looks a lot more like a
date to me because it's a month and a
year, but that is 3 years ago.
There we go. Nice
frozen onions.
A little bit of fat coming out of this
steak. Not nearly as much as that horror
show. Okay, there's our little beef
pieces. Let's see if those look real.
They're so small it's kind of hard to
tell, but I see real marbling. And add a
quarter of the final logic uh mozzarella
cheese. I'm going kill the heat. Just
going to throw a lid over the whole
thing to just let it kind of steam. Let
that cheese melt. And our bread. Ah,
it's hot out of the oven. Maybe this is
going to be an appropriate amount of
meat and cheese for this tiny little
roll. Yeah, actually looks like it is
going to be maybe just right. There you
have it. Our level four cheese steak.
The first one to feature whole pieces of
meat supposedly.
Definitely better than the steakums, but
like the meat has a off quality to it.
There's some flavor happening there that
really ought to be. And this was
thoroughly cooked and nicely brown. Like
I got good caramelization on this flavor
is just a little weird. I can't put my
finger on upon what exactly. Just a
weird flavor and some unpleasant
textures. So, not great, but still going
to be our level four. Level five, an
earnest attempt to make a basic Philly
cheese steak at home. We have some nice
large sub rolls. This is more akin to
the size of an actual Philly cheese
steak, which tends to be quite large. We
have some thinly shaved beef here. A lot
of grocery stores are starting to do
this. Green pepper, onion, and cheese
whiz. I'm not a big cheese whiz guy. Um,
this is one of the two options that
you're given when you go to the place,
and I'm not super into it. much prefer
uh white American deli slices. Now, I
should point out that as far as I know,
authentic Philly cheese steaks have no
peppers. Sometimes they have onions, but
that's about it. I think that green
peppers are considered a little more
touristy, but this what I'm going to do.
It feels like the at home thing to do,
and I like peppers on a cheese steak. It
like in my mind, it's it's almost become
part of the flavor profile. Next up, an
extremely important step after these
commercial messages.
Babish cookware. Checkmate. Atheists.
We're back with an extremely important
step. This is an essential part of the
cheese steak. You need the bread to
basically be almost round to hold all
that meat in place. There we go. There's
some scooped bread. You can see it makes
a cavity, a cavern if you will, that
allows us to get more in there, but also
prevents any from squishing out the
sides of the back. Now, for a cooking
surface, the old reliable cast iron
griddle. Just a little bit of vegetable
oil. Get things started. Crank up that
heat. I want to cook the vegetables
pretty immediately, get maybe a little
bit of color on them, and then move on
to the meat. Grab our steak. Plop it
down. Now, it's going to be in big
chunks. That's one of the unavoidable
things about buying shaved steak like
this. But the solution is that we're
going to chop it. This is one of the
many, many reasons why you don't want to
make a cheese steak in a non-stick pan.
All right, let's mix the peppers and
onions in there at the Hot Stone
Crearyy.
You can't tell. I've never worked at
Cold Stone Crearyy.
I think that they just put this on after
they've assembled the sandwich, but I
can't tell. So, I'm just going to do
just to maximize our goo factor and make
sure that it's not like a freaking
disaster. I'm going to hit the bread
with a little bit of whiz. And of
course, more whiz over top. Don't worry,
my soul's not dead yet. One of the more
important elements of sandwich craft is
wrapping. Uh, something that I didn't do
for way too long, and I see way too many
people not wrapping their sandwiches
before serving.
This compresses the sandwich, puts
everything together, makes sure that we
don't have any big stupid awkward gaps
or anything like that. Don't slice the
aluminum. You sometimes you end up with
little shreds of aluminum in there. I'm
just doing it for for looks.
Yeah. Lots of little shreds of aluminum.
Okay. Don't do that. Don't do what I
just did. Yeah. Only do that with
sandwich wraps, not with freaking
aluminum foil. That was stupid. Let's
take a look at that cross-section.
Oh yeah, I tried a little bit of the
beef here.
It's very dry. We'll see what happens
while I whiz. The crazy badass places in
Philly, they're shaving whole ribeye and
they're frying that up. So, there's a
ton of fat, ton of flavor. This is very
lean. So, it's pretty dry. It's tasty,
but it's dry. Yeah. That's the thing
you're unfortunately going to run into
whenever you buy things like shaved beef
or stir fry beef, any of those really
pre-prepared pieces of beef. You're
generally going to end up with lower
quality beef, less fat, and it's going
to be tough. It's saving you prep, but
it's going to be tough. So, it is most
assuredly a cheese steak. Like, this is
the first one that actually resembles
and tastes like a real cheese steak. But
by getting the pre-prepared stuff,
you're getting the right texture, which
is very hard to achieve at home. And,
you know, drown it in cheese whiz
because
kind of makes the illusion that the beef
is perfectly juicy. At the end of the
day, it's a decent cheese steak.
Level six, the level that begs the
question, is this a cheese steak? I'm
speaking, of course, of the chicken
cheese steak, which I think should be
called the cheese chicken or the
cheesecake, but I'm not in charge of
Philadelphia. So, chicken cheese steak
isn't just plain chicken usually.
Usually, it's seasoned with like a a
very simple slight marinade. Sometimes
they can be very saucy. I don't really
like that. So, I'm just going to do like
a tablespoon each soy sauce, wishes,
sure, and maybe like a/ teaspoon each
garlic and onion powder. Tiny whisk that
together. I'm notorious for forgetting
to salt my food and luckily this soy
sauce is salty as all get out so it's
probably going to do the job. Always a
generally good idea to dry brine your
chicken. Just hit it with a little bit
of salt and let it sit at room temp for
you know 20 30 minutes before we sear.
Great sear on our chicken thighs. They
might not even be completely cooked all
the way through. Doesn't matter. We're
going to let these cool for 5 10 minutes
just so we don't experience too much
moisture loss when we slice them up. I
don't want huge slices here. So, I might
cut these guys in half and then slice
them this way. There we go. It's not
quite shredded, but it's not quite
chunks either. That's looks just about
right. Let's dump in our peppers and
onions.
Drop in our chicken.
And we're just trying to heat this up,
get a little color on it, and of course,
drop in our flavor concoction,
which is just going to give the chicken
a little bit of color and a lot of bit
of flavor. Going with white American
cheese here. It seems to be what they
use in Philly, and it is also my
preferred topping. And cover it up.
Heat's off. This is just to melt the
cheese and make sure everybody's super
nice and hot and warm and wonderful.
Let's take a look. Beautiful. cheese is
nicely melted. There we go. Got a decent
amount of it there. Once again, I'm
calling upon Americans to do the pro
thing and wrap this sandwich up. It is a
big and it needs to be glued together. I
am going to let it sit for 5 minutes or
so to make sure that we get the ultimate
sandwich experience. I'm not going to
cut the foil again because I'm okay with
microlastics, but micro metals, I don't
think so. So, let's just take this off
unceremoniously. It's juicy. I can see.
I like how moist it is inside. Let's see
if we can get a cool cheese stretch
here. H. Not really. But ooh, that looks
good, though. That looks like a chicken
cheese steak, I'll tell you. Looks like
the cheese did not protect the bread
whatsoever. So, you know, do that at
your own peril.
There's a reason this is level six. Does
not taste of soy sauce or worashisher.
Just like a really nice savory chicken
flavor. Righteous level six. Worthy
level six. Not quite a cheese steak, but
damn close. Like if you didn't eat beef,
this is satisfying in a way that chicken
isn't normally. That's all there is to
it. It's fantastic. Worthy level six.
>> If this cheese steak is upgraded, does
that mean you were sandbagging on the
first two?
>> I guess that depends. What does
sandbagging mean again?
>> Like you were intentionally making them
worse, like being worse so that you
could then come back and be better
later. Yes. Yes. Yes. Level seven, an
upgraded homemade Philly cheese steak
that at least starts to resemble the
ones from the shop. The biggest barrier
to entry for Philly cheese steaks at
home is shaving the steak really thin.
And when you get it from the grocery
store, it can be tough. It can be dry.
So, how do we get steak really thin
without, you know, going out and buying
a deli slicer? The answer, I think, lies
in the mandolin. You can get these for
not very much. That leads us to the
other question. What kind of beef to
use? We need something not only widely
available and inexpensive, but something
that'll fit on a very narrow mandolin. I
think there's only one answer. I have
here some beautiful skirt steak, but it
is very, very, very tough if it isn't
eaten or sliced correctly. You've got a
extremely strong grain structure here.
And if you try to slice it with the
grain, it's going to be the equivalent
of eating a meaty rope. But if you slice
across the grain, you're basically pre-
chewing the meat for yourself. And isn't
that delicious? Isn't that what we want
to do? So, I'm going to wrap this up in
plastic wrap and wrap it really, really
tight. I want to compress these together
as much as possible. And I'm going to
put this in the freezer, not until it's
completely frozen, cuz then it'll be
very hard to slice, but until it's quite
firm, uh, probably at least an hour.
Oh yeah, that's doing it. Moral of the
story being, lightly freeze your meat.
Don't get it completely solid. If you
do, let it thaw for a couple hours in
the fridge so it's really really firm
but not totally frozen. And uh run it
through a mandolin. Beautifully shaved
steak. Perfect for our cheese steak. If
you've never been to Philly, this is why
you haven't tried Philly cheese steak
cuz it's so hard to get the beef. Right.
Now for the bread. And if you want to go
super authentic, you got to go to the
source. What we have here is Amaros's
bread and rolls. These guys are a Philly
based bakery that makes the
quintessential Philly cheese steak roll.
I got these from a restaurant supply
store. I'm going to let this guy defrost
completely. Slice them open, scoop them,
toast them, fill them, eat them. So, I'm
going to use green and red bell peppers.
I know it's not super authentic of me,
but there's two very important reasons
why I'm using them. I like them, and you
can't stop me. But, I'm also busting out
the new hotness. This is a prototype I
had the boys upstairs dream up. This is
a cast iron griddle. As you can see,
there's a very, very thin rim. This is
perfect for searing burgers, uh, cheese
steaks, and the like. But also, if you
flip it over, it is completely flat and
it becomes a pizza steel. It is so big
that you need to use it over a very
large burner or you need to preheat it
in the oven. So, I'm going to throw this
in a 500° Fahrenheit oven for 10, 20
minutes. Got our peppers and onions.
Here comes our beef.
Flip it over. Make sure everybody's
getting a good sear on it. I'm doing
white American on the meats because I
think it's the best choice for a cheese
steak topping in terms of texture and
minimal flavor. But I also do want to
acknowledge the value of proolone on the
inside of the bread. Hopefully insulate
it from some of the juices.
Oh, nice. This is a restaurant style
sandwich wrapper. You can get these
online. Basically, you've got a uh layer
of parchment paper and a layer of
aluminum foil to keep things toasty. All
right, it's been 5 minutes. Let's see
how our Philly style Philly cheese steak
has fared.
That's a juicy cheese steak. It's almost
like a Chicago beef.
>> It's so juicy. It's dripping because
it's such fatty, rich meat. There's no
way this is going to come out dry. Even
if you overcook it, it's still going to
be pretty juicy. I don't even think we
can get much higher, but we have to try.
So, on to level eight.
>> Bradley Cooper has Oscar nominations.
Why does he also get to have a legendary
cheese steak spot?
>> Well, I think because life is
foundationally unfair. Uh, it's
something you discover as you get older
and it grows more and more true with
each passing year. And you look at a guy
like Bradley Cooper and you're like,
that's unfair that he hasn't actually
won any Oscars. Level eight, how do you
improve an already upgraded really,
really good homemade cheese steak?
You go to the shop and you get one.
Specifically in New York City, the best
cheese steak you're going to get is from
Danny and Coops. This, of course, is the
famous collaboration between Bradley
Cooper and D'Angelos. Largely considered
to be the best Philly cheese steak in
Philly, even though I like Dalisandre's
a little better. Here's the thing. I
just went out and got this. I drove an
hour and a half to get it from Alphabet
City in Manhattan. Brought it back here.
It was a little cooled off from the
drive. So, I threw it in a low oven and
I forgot about it for a while. So, it's
going to be a little over toasted. The
bread's probably going to be crustier
than it's meant to be. I haven't even
looked at this thing yet. Didn't even
blink when I almost ruined it in the
oven. It's like, nope, I'm made by
Bradley Cooper. It is properly gooed
out. The roll feels great. It's like
nice and crusty and firm, but you can
tell that it's going to give.
Oh boy. Perfectly seasoned. The bread is
just right. Like it's nice and soft and
yielding, but has a great crusty
exterior. Probably even greater because
of its stent in the oven. A symphony of
meat and a very worthy level eight.
Because the fact is, unless you put a
lot of time and effort into it and
money, you're not going to be able to
make a Philly cheese steak as good as
this at home. Does making a Korean style
cheese steak make the people of Philly
more or less angry?
>> I'm guessing more, but also it's not my
problem because I have a very special
guest to help me with this next cheese
steak. All right, so for this level, not
only do I want some inventiveness on the
Philly cheese steak format, I want some
professional help. Something I think we
can all agree I desperately need. So,
here to help me is the chef and owner of
the one and only Mission Sandwich
Social, Chef Brian Sa.
>> What an intro. My goodness. Thank you.
>> One try. You're not giving you're not
seeing cut scape. None of those little
stupid bumps like pushins that are
clearly covering up for YouTubers
problems.
>> I was not standing there for half an
hour. Not at all.
>> So your restaurant is Mission Sandwich
Social.
>> Yes.
>> Tell me a little bit about it.
>> Restaurant, Sandwich Shop, Potato
Potato. Mission Sandwich Social has now
been open for proudly say 4 years now.
It is a place where I can really spread
my wings as a chef because I can do
pretty much any type of cuisine I want.
Put it in between two slices of bread.
And guess what? I'm home for dinner
every night. So,
>> what are you going to do today to a
Philly cheese steak?
>> We're going to make some Philly people
real mad.
>> How many people you're going to film?
Let's go.
>> You know what? The more the better.
We're making a Koreanstyle
Philly cheese steak. And we're going to
use a very special bulgogi recipe
because not only is this the bulgogi
recipe that you can taste at my place,
Mission Sandwich Social, but it's also
the one I used to beat Bobby Fle. All
right, that's right.
>> Well, if there's one group of people
that you want mad at you, it is
Philadelphiaians.
I'm going to be here as your Sue if you
need anything. Otherwise, I'm going to
be behind the camera talking to you the
whole time and u distracting you from
the very important work that you're
doing. Thank you so much for coming.
>> All right, I'm going to show you guys
the amazing art of cutting gou. And if
you guys didn't know, gochu is the word
in Korean for chili, but it's also the
word in Korean for business. And when I
say business, I mean I I guess in
Korea that's what they look like. I'm
only half Korean, so mine only looks
half like this.
Uh this is Korean brown rice vinegar.
This is unremarkable brown sugar along
with unremarkable kosher salt. Uh we do
not want to bring this to a boil. We
want to heat it up until the sugar and
salt is uh dissolved. It's a quick
pickle. You put in the pickling liquid
hot, it's going to pickle much faster.
Marinade time. my famous vulgi marinade
that I learned from my mom. Same recipe
I used to beat Bobby Fle. Same recipe
that you can try at Mission Sandwich
Social. And it starts with unremarkable
brown sugar. Uh soy sauce.
Oh no, red wine. I confused this red
wine for soy sauce, but guess what?
There is soy sauce in this recipe. And
we're going to put that in there. I know
in my reaction videos I say all the time
water is the enemy of flavor, but in
this case there's so much flavor. You
need to add the water in there. So we're
going to put some water into this
marinade. Sesame oil, I think, is one of
the signature flavor profiles of Korean
cuisine. Garlic, very important. Some
onion. My mom's secret ingredient is
pineapple juice. And I think my mom
didn't really know what she was doing
other than she knew pineapples are
fruity and tropical and sweet, but
pineapples contain something called
bromelain, which is an amazing
tenderizer. So, uh, that actually
contributes to your beef turning out a
lot more tender. We're just going to
whisk this. And guess what? We're done.
And, uh, now we move on to slice in some
beef. Don't break eye contact.
Then get your hands in there. This will
go into the fridge. We're going to make
comfy. So, we're going to fancy up this
scallion. We only want to use the white
segment because if you try to comy this
green segment here, it will singe and
burn and be very bitter. We don't want
that. We also don't want to cut it too
small. I'm kind of like quartering it.
This is going to shrink down a lot. We
are going to use dryaged beef tallow.
We're going to melt this down. Turned
off the heat. Letting the residual heat
take it the Oh, man.
White segments of scallion. It's going
to go in the oven.
>> Oh, your oven cuff.
>> Uh oven. Uh pot.
>> Oh,
>> you can see it's already wilting down.
So, it's pretty warm. And just kind of
let it sit.
>> Wow. Those really did shrink.
>> Yep.
Wow. Let's prep the uh pear salad. Don't
waste this. This is good stuff. Now, we
submerge this in ice water. It's going
to remove some of the intense alkalinity
that is the signature uh bite that some
people don't like from onions. Got some
cold water. We're going to squeeze some
lemon into there.
So, the reason I came over here on
camera is to ask you what role Asian
pear plays in marinades and and bulgogi
cuz when I've eaten them on their own,
they're extremely plain taste.
>> Mhm. Well, then uh you've had really
Asian pair.
>> That answer my question. Thank you.
>> But now I'm worried about this Asian
pair. Scallions nice and curly. Now,
this is how you get on to Top Chef.
>> So, uh
>> sorry, what is that?
>> Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. Kosugaro. Uh, dried
Korean chili flake. Touch of salt.
>> Go is quite mild.
>> Yes, it is mild. A little more lemon
juice. Okay. Just a touch of sesame oil.
>> All right. Salad done.
>> That looks fantabulous. Tell me a little
bit about what went into developing this
Dutch crunch.
>> Well, I started planning Mission
Sandwich Social during the pandemic
after I was let go from my job. And
while everybody was trying to make
sourdough for the first time, I decided
to make Dutch crunch. Now, I can't tell
you what the secret is or I'll go to
your house and end you,
but uh there is a paste that it it's
rice flour. Rice flour paste. You brush
it on top. It is a soft sweet roll.
Despite the name, it's actually on the
softer side. But when it toasts, it
toasts magnificently.
Scallion comfi. Going to get brushed
onto this Dutch crunch.
Sharp provolone for flavor.
Regular proolone for texture. Melty
gooiness.
>> Wow. There we go. Deserves trousers.
There we go.
>> Look at that.
>> This isn't very pretty. This is their
comfy
>> back to differ.
>> But we're going to stuff that in there
at least.
>> Put that in there. Some of our Asian
pear salad.
Pickled dick.
>> Pickled penis.
>> Okay. Put that. Tuck it in a little bit.
Bring that in. That's going to compact
the sandwich.
>> Look at that. Cheers.
>> Cheers.
>> Thank you.
>> This is not a cheese steak. It's my
version of a cheese steak, but it's a
great sandwich,
>> dude. I was going to say that it's
immediately recognizable as a cheese
steak. Obviously, there's new flavors.
Yeah, but you're hitting all the notes
to make it a cheese steak. I don't care
what Philadelphia says. such a huge
punch in flavor. I think it's also from
your pickled uh chilies. It has an
element that I think cheese steaks are
missing, which is acid. Like
>> having that that little hit of of of
acid in there. It just it rounds it out,
wakes it up. It makes it not so ungodly
savory.
>> Savory. Yes. I 100% agree. You know why
I said it's not a cheese stick?
>> What?
>> There's no cheese whiz on it. I love
cheese whiz. That was an absolutely
extraordinary sandwich.
I feel bad calling it level nine and
mine level 10. So, let's just call it a
draw. I haven't made mine yet, so I
don't know. But
>> let's let's call it let's call it a draw
for 10 cuz I there's no way I can out
sandwich that. I can just go in a
different direction. Uh guys, go check
out Chef Brian S on YouTube. Go check
out Mission Sandwich Social in
Williamsburg in Brooklyn. And thank you
so much for coming through, man. Oh,
pleasure.
>> Now, I'm going to see if I can not outdo
that, but just do that.
>> Chicken cheese steak, Korean Philly, and
now Chicago Philly. Do words not mean
anything to you?
>> Words mean plenty to me. Those words
mean exactly what they are. Korean
Philly, Chicago style Philly. But as I'm
saying them, I'm realizing I'm wrong.
Anyway, sorry. Here's the Chicago
Philly. One of the ways in which I'm
going to do what I'm calling a bit of
white fusion with this cheese steak is
by incorporating some elements of
Chicago style beef. Recently I did
Chicago style beef from bear. It's a
really fantastic sandwich. I think the
only thing missing from it is cheese.
The thing that a Philly cheese steak is
missing is pickled peppers, some acid,
some heat. So what I'm going to do is
make a gardinireish
because it's not quite a jardinire.
There's going to be no cauliflower, no
carrots. I'm going to instead do some
finely diced red and green pepper and
some big old chunks of sranos. I'm also
going to add half a scallion and a
couple cloves of minced garlic for
additional flavor. Coriander seed,
crushed red pepper. There's going to be
plenty of heat in here, but there's
going to be a different profile of heat.
Dried dill weed, celery seed, fennel
seed, and 1/4 teaspoons worth of ground
allspice. Also going to add 3
tablespoons of kosher salt. Just enough
vinegar to almost cover them. enough
vegetable oil to cover them the rest of
the way. Give that a little mixie poo.
Let it hang out in the fridge for at
least three days and up to I'd say two
weeks unless you uh jar or can them. All
right. Now for the beef. It's an all
caps beef with an exclamation point
because this is a prime bonein ribeye.
Bone in. You say I don't remember there
being any bones in a Philly cheese
steak. You're absolutely right. which is
why we're going to remove the bone, but
still put it to wonderfully good use. If
you start here, you can run into trouble
with these bones. They get wider as you
go. So, you'll start slicing bones. So,
I like to start with these guys. Get
around them. Voila. We're hanging on to
these cuz we're going to be using this
to make some broth. Now, for the ribeye,
we are just doing a dry brine. Pretty
generous sprinkling of salt on every
facet. Not every day that you get prime
beef and a cheese steak outside of Las
Vegas. That is God, I hate Vegas. This
guy's headed into the fridge uncovered
for up to three, four days. I'm going to
do two. All right, here's our roast. It
has spent 2 days in the fridge
uncovered. You can see it's dried out on
the outside. It's going to give us a
better crust. This guy's headed into a
275 300°ree Fahrenheit oven until it
reaches an internal temp of 105 110.
Probably going to come up at least 15
degrees uh in post. So, it's still going
to be nice and medium rare. Even if it
were undercooked, that's fine because
we're going to give it a secondary cook.
So, I'm going to let this cool uh at
room temperature for an hour or two. And
then I'm going to fridge it until it's
completely cooled before slicing it.
Nicely rare, very tender. Pulls right
apart. That's going to be perfect. There
you have it. An absolute mountain of
unbelievably high quality, beautifully
cooked, and ultra tender beef. So tender
in fact that I can just All right. So we
are of course going to make our own
cheese. Obviously I am going to use
sodium citrate to stabilize a cheese
product. In other words, make a fancy
homemade American cheese. So I have here
3/4 of an ounce of sodium citrate. This
is going to be enough to treat 6 ounces
of milk against 18 ounces of cheese. For
cheese, I'm going to use mostly Monterey
Jack cuz it's an excellent melter. has a
nice neutral flavor. As a nod to the
provolone so often used in the Philly
cheese steak diaspora, I'm going to add
a little bit of extra sharp provolone.
Just enough to give it a nice punch. And
then to make up the rest of the weight
up to 18 ounces, I have some mild
proolone here. It is deli sliced, which
is absolutely fine. I'm going to mix it
up and give it a taste because that
sharp provolone is so strong. No, it's
perfect. I feel like this is going to be
a white American cheese that h pays
tribute to proolone in the same way that
normal American cheese pays tribute to
cheddar. All right, let's add our sodium
citrate to the milk. And then while it's
just bare simmering, I'm going to add
all the cheese.
It start looking pretty chunky, but
that's cuz the cheese just isn't melted
yet. We just got to keep heating it.
Yeah, the stuff on the bottom, you can
see it's super smooth and creamy. And
we're just going to pour it right onto
the sheet. And we don't want it too
thick, uh, because it's going to have a
harder time melting. Multiple thin
slices, uh, are going to do much better.
All right, that's the best I'm going to
do because it's starting to seize up.
It's a little thick, but that's cool.
We're going to be subjecting it to
plenty of heat, so it's going to have
ample opportunity to melt. It's super
mild, but it's got that proolone tang to
it. It's got the proolone funk, but very
background. Perfect. Cuz I'm not super
crazy about just straight up proolone on
my on my cheese steak. Sometimes I'll do
a mix of American and provolone. That's
pretty much what this is. So, it is my
perfect fantasy. All right. To make our
hogi bread, we need to first start with
a pre- ferment. We need 250 g bread
flour, a teaspoon and a half of yeast, 1
and 1/2 cups or about 350 ml of water.
Wrap this guy tightly with plastic wrap.
And ideally, you want to let this go at
room temperature overnight. I'm going to
do 4 hours just because, well, it's
Friday. I have tomorrow to finish this.
And then I'm going to Atlanta to shoot
with Alton Brown.
>> More blood, please.
>> Following you. Here we go. Hang up.
>> Not to name drop, but I'm running low on
time. I have here 644 g of semolina
flour married to 188 g of bread flour.
One tablespoon of salt. Half teaspoon of
instant yeast. Whisk them together.
Getting make sure that they're nice and
homogeneous. One lightly beaten egg,
room temperature. 1/4 cup of
extra-virgin olive oil and one and 1/2
cups of room temperature water. And of
course, our big bubbly beautiful pre-
ferment. Look at that. It's definitely
going to have some nice flavor
development even after 4 hours. And
we're going to knead this guy until it
passes the window pane test. All right,
about 10 minutes later, the dough is
looking very smooth and elastic and
bouncy cuz it's quite sticky. You just
keep it moving and stretch it into a
nice taut ball. Well, that's another way
of knowing whether or not it's ready.
I'm able to stretch it like this without
it tearing. This is going to take about
an hour. We want to give it a solid
proof and we want it to pretty much
double in size. All right, dough has
doubled in size at least. Let's turn it
out. Punch it down a little bit. We got
to get these air bubbles out of here.
So, this will be into four pieces. 225.
What I want to do today is shape it by
stretching it. I have some sheet trays
prepped with semolina flour. Gently
draping this over top this oiled plastic
wrap. All right, those will be a little
experimental because I'm not sure how
well that's going to work. All right,
this one I'm going to try the roll out
method. And now I'll roll it up very,
very tight. All right, so we get a
smoother exterior from that and a pretty
well closed seam. Place that seamside
down. I guess I kind of liked that
actually. It ends up giving a much
smoother exterior. Once again, under
oily plastic wrap, not tucking anything
underneath. Now, these suckers are going
to rise at room temperature for probably
an hour. Um 45 minutes to an hour.
Wow. They they didn't pop up as much as
I anticipated. Um but they spring back,
but uh not all the way when poked. So,
that means they're ready to go. You
really want it as smooth as possible so
you don't end up with streaks of egg
whites on your loaf while they're still
wet. You don't want these to dry before
absolutely attacking them with sesame
seeds. I really liked sesame seeds on
the bread from Danny and Cooks. Those
are headed into a 450° Fahrenheit oven
for 15 to 20 minutes or until they're
gorgeous. Well, for all their apparent
flaws, these came out looking pretty
good. Oh man, those look great. namely
this guy and this guy. I've got two
really strong possibilities. So, one of
the things I'm doing with this sandwich
is par cooking my beef and then
finishing cooking it in a brazing liquid
just like a Chicago style beef. This is
going to make for a really juicy, really
flavorful beefy cheese steak. And for
that, I need a really flavorful brazing
liquid. So, I'm going to make a quick
pressure cooker stock out of those ribs
that we saved from the roast. And I've
got a couple onions. Plus, I have a
little bit of our leftover shaved skirt
steak. That's just going to bolster
things up a little bit more. Not going
to need much. So, I'm only going to fill
this so that all the stuff is covered. 2
hours even. Let's get All right, moment
of truth. Time to put together our level
10 Philly cheese steak. Earlier, I
simmeed the stock with a bunch of
aromatics and root vegetables. It came
out really, really bony, like bone
brothy, which can be a little
off-putting, but it was a beautiful beef
flavor. So, adding all these vegetables
is going to add some sweetness and some
balance to the whole situation. I
simmered it for hour and a half or so
until it was reduced by about a third.
That's going to make for a much more
flavorful liquid. And of course, I
sliced up my Americanstyle proolone
cheese. It's a little thick and the
slices are a little undized, but that's
going to be just fine. All right, it is
time also to see how our bread came out.
I left it out uncovered overnight, which
so long as you don't slice into the
bread is a pretty good way to store it,
at least for one night. Yeah, nice
fluffy open crumb. Uh-oh, it's
splitting. Oh, there's a hole in this
one. Okay, well, this is our practice
loaf. Can almost get it open, but it's
it's torn in the back. So, okay. I think
by leaving it out and letting it kind of
stale like that, I think that's what
screwed me. I feel a little less legit
making a a sandwich that you don't close
like a book, but it sure is going to
make my life easier. So, I'm also going
to toast with a bit of Chef Brian's
dry-aged scallion infused beef tallow.
Is it immoral for me to use another
chef's creation in my level 10 sandwich?
Yes. Is it borderline cowardly? Yes. Is
it shameful?
Yes. I'm going to throw these guys in a
375° Fahrenheit oven until they're
lightly brown. Just lightly brown. We
don't want this to get too toasty, too
rigid. Meanwhile, I have some oil
preheating.
I want to get it smoking. Right next to
it, I have the brazing liquid that is
just sub boiling. 180° is a gentle
simmer or a poaching temperature. Uh,
and that's where right where we want to
live so we don't overcook anything. Now,
this is pretty rare, so I'm just going
to give it a quick sear. I'm not going
to cook it all the way through. Not by a
long shot, and then put it straight in
the liquid, drench it a little bit, and
it's going to cook so gently, it's not
going to dry out or get tough or
anything. I'm going to start by front
loading it with cheese. This is going to
be a lot of cheese. You know what? I'm
going to frontload the jardiner, too. I
think it'll be a little difficult to to
keep on top once I have a pile gone.
There we go.
Let's see if I can pile this stuff on
here. All right, that's a lot of beef,
but I do want a little bit in there to
help melt the cheese, all that good
stuff. Oh, it's holding up really
nicely. You know, actually, I kind of
want to cut it in half now. All right,
that's going to be hard to wrap now that
it's in half. But come on, work with me.
This is what we've been training for.
Okay, boyo. Stop saying boyo. You're not
Irish. Okay, that looks pretty awesome.
Let's see if I can't get a decent
cross-section of this sucker. Here we
go. Come on. Give me a good one.
Oh, no cheese stretch. How's that
possible? Look at that. The bread is not
soggy at all. You can see it has held up
remarkably well considering what a wet
sandwich this is.
Oh god, that was good. The cheese is
just right. It's got just that little
hints of proolone flavor without being
too overbearing. God, that jardinire is
so good. It brings so much heat and
flavor, but more importantly brings
acid. The beef is so tender, so juicy,
so flavorful. It is, after all, prime
slow roasted, seared, and beeftock
braced. It's not going to not taste
good. Man, I've had a lot of cheese
steaks over the past 4 days, and this is
exemplary. It's singularly delicious.
Like this is such a fantastic mashup of
a Philly cheese steak and a Chicago
beef. But at the end of the day, it's
not really a Philly cheese steak. It's
more of a Chicago beef with cheese on
it, which is a Philly cheese steak with
jardinara.
It's a little it's it it's not true
enough to its roots. There's almost too
much flavor. It's It's not beefy
flavored enough. It's balanced. It's
beautiful. It's wonderful as a sandwich.
So, is this a cheese steak? I leave that
up to you. But it is a fantastic
sandwich. I don't know if I can call it
a level 10 cheese steak just cuz it's
straight a little bit far from Philly,
but it's my level 10 cheese steak and
that's really what matters at the end of
the day. So, what did we learn today? It
can be fun and even healthy to stretch
concepts, but if you push them too far,
you'll end up snapping something in your
groin and being on bed rest for 9
months. because that's what happened
with level 10, a perfectly serviceable
sandwich that had no rights being called
a Philly cheese steak. But I hope you
picked up some new tips and tricks,
especially that one with the mandolin
and the frozen beef, cuz that made the
closest at home equivalent to a cheese
steak, a real Philly cheese steak that
I've ever had. So, I hope you try that
out. More than anything, I hope you make
yourself a Philly cheese steak. Unless
you live in Philly, in which case, just
go to Dallas, tell them Babish sent you
it. They'll have no idea what you're
talking about.
Thanks again to Cook Unity for
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