[RECIPE] Cincinnati Steak Hoagie w/ Mushroom Sauce
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2022 3:48 pm
To paraphrase Homer Simpson: Wait, wait, I've got a [sandwich] too! Listen up, cuz I gotta explain a lot of it.
Cincinatti's main claim to fame, food-wise, appears to be making things that 1) nobody outside of Cincinnati likes, and 2) aren't actually what they are called. To wit, "Cincinnati chili" is generally reviled outside of the 513, and is not chili. Which brings us to the Cincinnati "steak hoagie". I dare anyone to find anything resembling steak in the above picture.
A Cincinnati steak hoagie is a sandwich consisting of an elongated meat-like substance on a sub roll, with cheese, and either pizza sauce or mushroom sauce topping it. "But what if I want a different sauce?" You cannot. You either get pizza sauce or mushroom sauce. "What if I don't want a sau--" PIZZA OR MUSHROOM. That is your choice, and you must choose one.
I wanted to try making my own, so I searched out recipes on how to make the "meat" patty, because obviously it's not just ground beef, and it's not a flattened steak, and it's not... I didn't know what it was. I looked and looked. And there are none. For such a ubiquitous local favorite, there are zero recipes out there describing how to make them. All I could find was this frozen product, which is what I guess you buy when you don't know how to make them yourself:
...and then I learned a horrible, amazing secret.
The reason there is no recipe for these things is that that is the recipe. From grandma's house to the sports bar down the street, everyone just buys "J.T.M." frozen patties, and that's it. That's why they all taste exactly the same.
Well, cool, that'll make these a lot simpler to make.
For my first attempt, I chose mushroom sauce, because that is obviously the correct answer. J.T.M. makes their own mushroom sauce, but I couldn't find any, and at least this was an opportunity to actually do SOME cooking, to put the ol' "Ben's Famous" stamp on a local legend. So, here ya go:
Ben's Famous Cincinnati Steak Hoagies with Mushroom Sauce
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- 3 frozen J.T.M. hoagie patties. I can't believe it either.
- 3 sub rolls.
- Provolone slices.
- Pickle slices.
- Sliced sweet onion
- Ben's Famous mushroom sauce
Ben's Famous Mushroom Sauce
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2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
8 oz white mushrooms, trimmed of stems, cut in half and sliced.
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1.5 cups low-sodium beef broth
For the sauce:
- Heat saucepan over medium-high.
- Mix butter and olive oil.
- Add mushrooms and salt.
- Saute 5 minutes or so.
- Add garlic/onion powders.
- Add soy sauce
- Add flour, mix everything together.
- Slowly add broth, stirring all the while, until it makes a nice thick sauce, like you can spoon over a sandwich, cuz...
For the sandwich
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- Preheat oven to 350.
- Line a baking sheet with foil, put three frozen patties on it, and throw it in the oven for 8-10 minutes (I can't believe it's come to this.)
- Remove patties and foil.
- Cut sub rolls in half, and put each half face-up on the sheet.
- On the "heel", layer the sandwich thusly:
- Patty, then onions, then spoon over a bunch of mushroom sauce, then cover with provolone.
- Stick back in the oven for 5 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and the bread is slightly toasted.
- Remove sandwiches, top with pickle slices, then put the tops of the buns on top, slice in half, serve, and hope nobody realizes you just served them frozen garbage.
This was my first attempt, and it was the best one I've ever had.