Southerners – those of a mind for good food – often produce and self-publish inexpensive, plastic-spined cookbooks featuring collections of recipes from the local church, garden club, or family reunion. As the descendant of a very large, very Catholic, very Southern family, I have more than my fair share of these one-off recipe collections. As a general rule, they’re rather hit (surprisingly good country fried ham) and miss (spaghetti with ketchup. Seriously). The dish I’m showing you today comes from the most Catholic city in the South, which also happens to be the best food city in the South. It’s the legendary New Orleans po’ boy, and it’s the best thing I’ve found in the whole damn local cookbook collection. I added a bit of smoked Tabasco to the mayo, and the techniques are updated a bit, but otherwise it’s untouched since a young JB Mays attended a 1994 family reunion at a Tennessee state park. 17 years and thousands of sandwiches later, it’s still one of the best uses of meat in the known universe.
The Setup
- 2 lb eye of round roast
- 2 french loaves, cut and split into 6 rolls
- 3 tbsp vegetable or grapeseed oil
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 large white onion, chopped
- 2 ribs of celery, sliced 1/2″
- 1 quart (32 oz.) of chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed
- 3 tsp black pepper
- Kosher salt
- 2 ripe tomatoes, sliced
- Dill pickle slices
- Iceberg lettuce, shredded
- 1/2 c mayo
- 1 medium red onion, sliced into strips
- 4 tbsp smoked chipotle Tabasco
Cooking
1. Preheat your oven to 200. Pat the beef dry, season, and sear with the oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high until well-browned on each side. Reduce the heat if the pot begins to burn.
2. Remove the beef and add the carrots, onion, and celery. Cook 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender and slightly browned.
3. Deglaze the pot with a bit of white wine or stock and return the beef to the pot. Add the bay leaves, thyme, and cover halfway with chicken stock.
4. Bring the stock to a boil, cover the pot, and throw it in the oven on the middle rack.
5. Cook for two and a half hours, turning the meat halfway through, until the meat is ridiculously tender.
6. Remove the pot to the stovetop and let it cool until it can go in the fridge.
7. Refrigerate for at least four hours (overnight works best) until the fat collects on the surface of the liquid. Carefully skim it off and discard or feed to an enemy.
8. Remove the beef, keep chilled, and strain the stock into a bowl and discard the vegetables and other solids.
9. Preheat the oven to 350.
10. Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat until it melts. Slowly whisk in the flour and cook until the roux is amber-colored and aromatic.
11. Slowly add the strained stock, whisking in, and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and reduce 20 minutes until it forms a thick gravy consistency.
12. Remove the chilled beef to a cutting board and use your sharpest knife to slice meat into the thinnest slices you can manage.
13. Arrange the beef slices in a glass baking dish and scrape any beef debris (Creoles pronounce it DEB-riss, because they’re wacky) from the cutting board onto the beef. Pour over the hot gravy and cover tightly with foil.
14. Let the beef and gravy cook another hour.
15. Mix the Tabasco with the mayo and spread on both the tops and bottoms of the French bread.
16. Top the rolls with the beef and debris and arrange sandwiches on a baking sheet. Toast sandwiches for ten minutes
17. Remove sandwiches and dress with lettuce, onion, and tomato.
18. Grab a cold beer and a hell of a lot of napkins and serve with some Zapp’s chips.