this episode is sponsored by eight sleep I got to try their newest generation of temperature controlled mattress covers the Pod 4 not only does it independently heat or cool both sides of your bed it can track your sleep phases and heart rate the adjustable pod 4 ultra can even detect snoring and gently raise your head to improve air flow as someone who’s always had difficulty staying and falling asleep the Pod 4 has been a GameChanger head to .com/briowfc right probably there you go chef chef come on what do you think it’s redundant and white just like you Tina salt tender nice we happy happy hey what’s up guys welcome back to binging with babish where this week we’re taking a look at the Chicago style Italian beef from the bear so first up we need a control group and the best I can do here in New York City is special order from Al’s number one Italian beef a box which contains eight portions of bread in a bag eight portions of their signature roast beef also in a bag just leave that right there a quart of gravy or the beef brazing liquid and they’re primarily celery based jarara all told this eight sandwich kit rings in at about $130 before taxes and shipping let’s find out if it was worth all the Ziploc bags first we’re bringing the brazing liquid to a simmer making sure to get all that flavorful goo out of the bottom once simmering we’re adding the beef and letting it just heat through the instructions said 2 minutes but even that seemed way way too long especially because even after 30 seconds it was falling apart so much I could barely pick it up at the tongs at the restaurant it seems like they’re brazing medium rare roast beef but this appears to be fully cooked so it’s no surprise that it ends up pretty Scrappy as a result with the help of a fine mesh Civ I was able to dle out enough meat for two sandwiches top with their oily spicy celery based jarara and then wrap tightly in foil to let it sit for about 2 minutes this was not in the instructions but it is an essential step in hot sandwich craft mostly because it heats the sandwich throughout and softens the bread so there you have it Al’s number one Italian beef probably a pale imitation of what you get at the restaurant but let’s give it a try and it’s unfortunately not great the beef is mushy and underf flavored and the bread’s little stale which I hoped the infamous dipped option would remedy and it did but it’s also a soggy sandwich I know this is a popular Regional option but it’s just not for me it’s like I dropped it in a puddle or something so after watching some of their videos on YouTube I endeavored to recreate the recipe for myself combining 2 quarts of water 2 teaspoons paprika tablespoon each celery and fennel seed 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 tbspoon oregano 1 teaspoon each dried thyme and parsley 2 teaspoons kosher salt black peppercorns and coriander seed half teaspoon red pepper flake two large bay leaves 1/4 taspo ground allspice and 2 cubes of beef bullion in a wide Dutch oven with about 2 quart of water to St also I was beset with tons of extra garlic at the time so I’m going to throw eight whole cloves in there unpeeled mix it around make sure everything’s dissolved make a little mess and in comes our top sirloin butt owl’s number one cut of choice we’re going to gently lower that into our spice Laden water fat cap Up Add Water as needed until it comes 3/4 of the way up the side of the beef partially cover and braze in a 300° f oven for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours until the beef registers about 130° F at its thickest Point fish it out and put it on a rack otherwise it’ll continue to cook in the hot liquid and allow both to cool for about 1 hour before wrapping and fridging next up the unfortunate necessity of making a Chicago style Italian beef the deli slicer but you can still get one of these on Amazon for cheaper than that sandwich kit we’re slicing the beef as thin as possible we want it to be at the accordion stage in other words you should be able to tug it from both sides and see right through it now all that’s left is assembly I don’t want my sandwich to be under flavored so I’m going to reduce this brazing liquid by about 50% concentrating the spices and beefy Vibes then same procedure as before drop in the freshly sliced roast beef for about 15 seconds and transfer directly into some awaiting hogy rolls also surely for the sake of variety I’m going to opt for marone’s hot Chicago style janera apparently a local favorite pile it high wrap it tight and let it sit and let’s see if we got a little bit closer to the in-person Chicago style Italian beef experience and I got to say massive Improvement the utmost respect to Al’s my mail order PE quads was pretty awful too but when I tried it in Chicago it was nothing short of revelatory now as for recreating the sandwich from the show my dear friend and now Emmy winner mattye maton designed the food for the show and detailed how to make it on his channel which you can watch by clicking the link in the upper right hand corner right now so instead of just carbon copy his I wanted to try to make a babish version First up the gardera I’m going to use half a head of of chopped cauliflower a diced red bell pepper two diced carrots four sliced Sano chilies and half a chopped onion then adding 1 tbsp crushed red pepper half a tbsp dried parsley 1 teaspoon dried oregano 3/4 of a teaspoon ground pepper 1/ teaspoon each celery seed Mustard Seed fenel seed coriander seed and Dill weed4 taspo of ground all spice and 3/4 of a cup of white vinegar sorry for the rush but I couldn’t find the footage of me doing that stuff I’m also adding half a cup of vegetable oil and adding more vinegar as necessary so that the vegetables are all submerged cover in fridge for at least 3 days now for the bread I’m going to do a sort of semolina hybrid starting with a poolish made from 250 g of bread flour 1 teaspoon instant yeast and 1/2 cups of water cover and let sit overnight until gooey dump into the bowl of a stand mixer along with one room temperature Egg 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil another teaspoon of instant yeast and 1 tbsp kosher salt whisk to combine until homogeneous then in the separate Bowl we’re combining 644 G of semolina flour and 188 G of bread flour whisk until evenly combined and add to the Bowl along with another cup and half of room temperature water affix your dough hook and use it to mix the ingredients together for about 1 minute before kneading on medium speed for a solid 8 minutes the sandwich is going to get wet so we need profound gluten development make sure it passes the window pane test then drop it into the lightly oiled proofing container of your choosing and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes or until doubled in size then it’s easiest to work with this dough on a generously oiled countertop so go ahead and drizzle with some neutral flavored oil like vegetable or Canola plop down the dough and divide evenly into six pieces using a scale for an air of legitimacy you’re also going to want to oil your rolling pen and make sure you really work that oil in there you just want to uh um you just want to rub the shaft um anyway uh we’re using that to roll this out to roughly a 14x 8 in rectangle then starting at the edge nearest you we’re going to start tightly rolling the dough into a log pressing and stretching as much as possible to knock out any air bubbles then this bread loves to blow out the side so we have to very very thoroughly pinch the seam shut on the bottom make sure the dough is well and truly sealed together and Tuck the ends underneath then we’re placing these on a parchment line baking sheet dusted with semolina flour rinse and repeat with the remaining dough and cover with Loosely tented lightly oiled plastic wrap giving these guys plenty of room to rise over the next hour or so until doubled in size now to give these guys a burnished brown crust we’re going to brush them down thoroughly on all exposed surfaces with a beaten egg also if you see any bubbles like this one now is a good time to pop them now with a bread lame or your very sharpest knife we’re going to place three diagonal slashes down the length of the loaf then they’re headed onto a pizza stone in a preheated 425° F oven for anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown and let’s be honest perfect allow to cool completely before slicing and eating next up the meat and I’m going with a 5 lb chuck roast which I’m going to coat generously on all facets with a mixture of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper before wrapping and letting it sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours next up I have a few extra oxtails that are on the verge of insolvency so I’m going to use those for a bunch of extra flavor and to make some nice meat snacks I’m combining them with one roughly chopped onion two roughly chopped carrots and four roughly chopped stocks of parsley lightly salting and generously oiling with a neutral flavored oil like vegetable or Canola then I’m going to hit them with about 2 tspoons of tomato paste almost like we’re making a demig glass toss until evenly coated and then we’re going to dump them into a large roasting pan and dump that roasting pan into a preheated 425° F oven preferably with convection turned on until deeply beautifully golden brown this is going to make for a brazing liquid worth drinking on its own de glaze the pan with about 4 cups of water making sure to scrape up all that fantastic fond off the bottom of the pan not only is this going to add a ton of flavor to the gravy if you leave it on the bottom and bite Scorch then I’m also going to add two large bay leaves I hardly know what they do but they’re always there 1 tsp whole peppercorns a tbspoon of whole all spiced berries a tablespoon of fennel seed a tablespoon of coriander seed 2 teaspoons of celery seed 2 tasps of sweet paprika mostly for color but also for flavor half teaspoon red chili flake and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper I’m also going to add a few fresh herbs couple stocks of Rosemary a few sprigs of thyme and a 16th bushel of parsley or you know like five sprigs scoot everything to the side to make room for the beef and Nestle it into the cooking liquid making sure that there’s nothing underneath oh yeah I’m also going to have a whole head of garlic and toss that in there just I don’t know wherever it fits then this guy’s headed it into a preheated 300° F oven for anywhere from 1 and 1/2 to 3 hours depending on the size of your beef now you’ll noticed that I didn’t sear the beef that’s because it’s only partially submerged so the heat of the oven will naturally brown it after about about an hour I’m going to take it out temp it and give it a flip so that it gets browned all over now I’m going to stick it in its thickest point with a wireless probe and keep an eye on its internal temperature I want to pull it at around 130° F same deal as before we’re pulling out the roast and letting it cool separately then I’m throwing the roasting pan back in the oven because I want my oxtails to finish cooking those are totally optional by the way you could use beef bones or just omit them entirely let the beef cool wrap it and fridge it set aside your oxtails for snacking and strain the cooking liquid through a fine mesh SI pressing down in it to extract every last golden drop be realistic with your storage container and let this guy cool for about an hour before fridging overnight with the beef bear in mind the beef needs to be cold otherwise when you slice it it’ll slice messily and you lose a lot of juice the next day and don’t worry that’s a new shirt I know it looks similar I’m unwrapping and prepping my bread which is truly my ultimate sandwich bread it’s dense and chewy but light and fluffy and has a great semolina flavor I’m trimming them down to hogy size thinly slicing all that beautiful roast beef then I’m having the common decency to lightly oil and Toast My Bread weighing it down and griddling on a cast iron skillet while I warm up the beef same deal pretty much just let it heat through 15 to 30 seconds tops breads nice and crunchy and we’re ready to assemble now for my final heretical Act I’m going to use cheese sliced wet American and provolone I’m sorry but this sandwich is just really really good with cheese on it load it up with beef and then our homemade spicy jardinera admire it for a few brief moments before wrapping it up tight and letting it sit and for the first time in what feels like forever let’s take a look at that crosssection nice chewy fluffy bread melty cheese tender juicy and flavorful beef and spicy crunchy pickled vegetables I’m sure folks from Chicago are going to have some Choice words for me but this is like the fourth or fifth Italian beef I’ve had in as many days and I couldn’t even stop myself from entering it into the Clean Plate Club thanks again to eight sleep for sponsoring this episode and for massively improving my sleep after you slip on the Pod 4 like a mattress cover it can heat or cool each side of the bed independently and is loaded with clinical grade sensors to track your sleep I’m a cold room sleeper so particularly during New York City’s recent Heat wave the Pod 4’s ability to get 20° fhe below room temperature has been a GameChanger in improving my relationship with rest if you want to try it out head to 8sleep.com babish and use code babish to get $200 off the Pod 4 [Music] [Music]

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