The Steak Sandwich to End All Steak Sandwiches
"This sandwich will be sweet and moist from the onions, savory and chewable thanks to the thoroughly cooked cecina, and as spicy as you dare prepare."
What's true of a steak is not necessarily true of a steak sandwich. I like my stand-alone steak bleeding rare and cut from the rib, but slap that prime, pink flesh between two pieces of bread and I struggle both to taste and to chew the thing. A steak sandwich is the one time I want my meat thinly sliced and cooked through, to break down fibers and build up flavor.
Carne cecina, the salted, sun-dried beef traditional to central Mexico, is my favorite taco filling at my local taquería. Yet, despite living in a very Mexican part of Brooklyn, where cecina is sold alongside cigarettes, I had always resisted buying the raw ingredient. In its uncooked form, the meat has an off-putting, greyish-brown cast; it seemed easier to pay somebody $2.25 to put it in a taco for me. And then it occurred to me: Thin sheets of cecina, with their intense, almost jerkylike flavor, would make one hell of a steak sandwich. This one, I'd have to cook myself.
To make The Steak Sandwich to End All Steak Sandwiches, you will need:
1. Good, crusty baguette, slit along one side, leaving a fine hinge.
2. Caramelized onions. I really do mean caramelized, so don't be impatient. You want to get every last hint of sulfur out of those onions, until they're limp, tangled and almost mahogany in color. Towards the end of cooking, a splash of red wine vinegar and a spoonful of sugar will make them sing.
3. Cecina*, seared in very little oil until cooked through; no need to season. The thinnest parts will be almost crisp, which might be sacrilege for a ribeye but is just perfect for this cured, partially dried cut.
4. Creamed horseradish or good, strong mustard for spreading. To assemble, stuff your condiment-smeared baguette with as much cecina as you think you can handle, and the same amount again of caramelized onions. The sandwich will be sweet and moist from the onions, savory and chewable thanks to the thoroughly cooked cecina, and as spicy as you dare prepare.
* Mexican cecina is not to be confused with the cecina from Spain, which is smoked, fully air-dried and quite similar to bresaola.
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25 Comments:
This looks great, Michele. I'm going to have to head to my neighborhood Mexican market and pick up some cecinas—and a Mexican Coke or two.
Adam Kuban at 11:04AM on 01/12/09
@Adam - do you mean Jarritos? Because Jarritos scare me.
Michele Humes at 11:07AM on 01/12/09
Oh yeah big ups
Luther at 11:13AM on 01/12/09
I like some jarritos, the tamarind is good and so is the papaya (I think?)
but I think Adam means coke bottled in Mexico with cane sugar instead of corn syrup
here is an article about it from the Chicago Tribune
http://www.hispanicmarket.net/hispanic_business/mexican_coke_how_sweet_it_is_/
intheyearofthepig at 11:30AM on 01/12/09
@intheyearofthepig - Ah, I see. It's the same in Europe. I'm not a big soda drinker myself but lots of my friends who studied in Europe are always rhapsodizing about cane sugar Coca-Cola.
I'll totally admit that my anti-Jarritos stance is irrational and not based on actual experience. (As I say, I don't drink much soda.) But the colors...they're just so dingy and "off" somehow. Maybe if they put them in a can so I couldn't see them...
Michele Humes at 11:36AM on 01/12/09
if one wanted to add a cheese component to this, what would be a good choice? horesradish cheddar instead of the horseradish mustard? or could you use a mexican queso fresco?
mr guy at 11:42AM on 01/12/09
this looks deeelish. kudos!
Laurel E at 11:49AM on 01/12/09
@mr guy - Personally I'd go for something mild and sweet like provolone, since the other flavors are already so strong. The cheesesteak establishes a pretty good precedent, right? As for the horseradish cheddar, I didn't know it existed, and I'm a little skeptical :)
Michele Humes at 11:53AM on 01/12/09
I'm all over this. I've seen the product for years but thought it was some kind of jerky-like deal.
browngravy at 12:00PM on 01/12/09
@Michelle Humes~Cabot makes a nice zingy horseradish cheddar. It's the second one down on this page:
http://www.cabotcheese.com/f1.php?left=menu-ourproducts.html&right=ourproducts.html
I think Yancy's also makes one.
dhorst at 12:07PM on 01/12/09
@dhorst - I lived for several years in the UK and have a very clear idea of what cheddar should be--that is, sharp enough to make you involuntarily grimace. If you can put horseradish on top of that, there's got to be a problem with the underlying cheese.
I really have my doubts about flavored cheeses, in general. Even the Brits will make Wensleydale with port or white Stilton with apricots, and I say no thanks.
Michele Humes at 12:16PM on 01/12/09
@Michele: Yes. Intheyearofthepig is correct. I mean the Coke bottled in Mexico, which uses cane sugar instead of HFCS. It's totally awesome. I know whereabouts you live, and I'm sure it's readily available in bodegas there. Just look for the tall glass bottles with a sort of contents label sticker on them.
Adam Kuban at 12:33PM on 01/12/09
@Michele Humes~You and my departed grandfather would be in complete agreement. He was quite picky about his cheeses and a purist at heart. I do think the texture is often affected with flavored cheeses which is one of my pet peeves.
Back in the '80's I spent a semester in Leicester, so of course I ate quite a bit of Red Leceister paired with Tiger Bitter.
dhorst at 12:34PM on 01/12/09
Jarritos is good stuff. The lime flavor is quite nice.
worldcupfever at 1:15PM on 01/12/09
maybe a cheese sauce made with something like a gruyere. I've tried this before and it's fab. I'm just wondering where I'm going to find cecina in the NW. Also, sometimes Costco sells the Mexican Coke, and it's super. Another alternative, if you find it, is Jones Soda's cola. Cane sugar all the way. For beef, I sometimes use the sukiyaki beef cuts from the Asian markets. Super thin, and you just season it and go.
ajdaddy at 1:33PM on 01/12/09
how long do you cook for? less than a minute?
avisualperson at 2:10PM on 01/12/09
wondering if it can be cooked through in a toaster oven, so I can prepare this sandwich at work. should, right?
avisualperson at 2:11PM on 01/12/09
In Oaxaca, Mexico, this kind of meat is called "tasajo", and they use the word "cecina" for thin pork covered in chile pepper. Just some fun facts. I cannot wait to eat this sandwich.
ReneeRobinson at 2:32PM on 01/12/09
@ajdaddy - Re: sukiyaki cuts - nice tip!
@avisualperson - I'm sure you can cook it under a toaster oven, but I really can't estimate the time. But cecina is so thin that when it looks done on the outside, it is done, so it shouldn't take much guesswork. Are you gonna skip the onions?
@ReneeRobinson - Interesting. It says "cecina" on the packet, though, and Wikipedia says that the pork/chile combo you mention is called "cecina enchilada". So much conflicting information!
Michele Humes at 2:37PM on 01/12/09
A bit of a broadly used term, from Spain to Mexico:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecina_(meat)
PommeDG at 5:34PM on 01/12/09
This sounds really good. I make my own cheesesteaksat home these days with steak I slice thin in my own meat slicer. I've never seen Carne cecina in my past of the country. Of course I never bothered to look for it, so I'm sure somebody will have it.
My question is, does cecina come presliced?
It seems that a really good caso dipping cheese would go well with this. Well, at least the white kind you find in southeastern Mexican restaurants(which seems ten times better and different than you find anywhere else. Hard to explaine).
Raiders757 at 10:01PM on 01/12/09
@Raiders757 - Cecina comes in very thin, almost A4-sized sheets. They're pressed together tightly and have to be peeled apart. You'll have to slice them into smaller pieces, but you won't have to slice them thin, if that makes sense.
I had to look up "caso" because I wasn't sure what you meant. You must be referring to "queso" :) Yeah, I can see a white cheese sauce being good on this. My only caveat is that the cecina is already very salty, so you don't want to overdo it with a strong sauce.
Michele Humes at 9:22AM on 01/13/09
Thank you very much for your response. You had it right. I didn't spell "queso" correctly.
I have got to try this. I'll do so without "queso" to start. I don't mind salt, but would rather try it your way first. It sounds so good, my mouth waters looking at the pics.
Raiders757 at 10:35PM on 01/13/09
I love cecina. It is a great idea to try it on a steak sandwich. Must try it.
velascomike at 5:56PM on 01/16/09
I made these this weekend. It made a very tasty steak sandwich, but two thoughts for the next time I make them... I will likely rinse / soak the beef to reduce the saltiness, and I will also likely cook it for much longer over lower heat - it ended up being tougher than I would have liked.
The flavor was fantastic. Thanks for the idea!
zy1125 at 11:11AM on 01/19/09