Meat The meat traditionally used is thinly sliced
rib-eye or
top round, although other cuts of beef are also used. On a lightly oiled griddle at medium temperature, the steak slices are quickly browned and then scrambled into smaller pieces with a flat spatula. Slices of cheese are then placed over the meat, letting it melt, and then the roll is placed on top of the cheese. The mixture is then scooped up with a spatula and pressed into the roll, which is then cut in half. Common additions include
sautéed onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, hot sauce, salt, and black pepper.
Bread In Philadelphia, cheesesteaks are invariably served on hoagie rolls. Among several brands, perhaps the most famous are
Amoroso rolls; these rolls are long, soft, and slightly salted. One source writes that "a proper cheesesteak consists of
provolone or
Cheez Whiz slathered on an Amoroso roll and stuffed with thinly shaved grilled meat," while a reader's letter to an
Indianapolis magazine, lamenting the unavailability of good cheesesteaks, wrote that "the mention of the Amoroso roll brought tears to my eyes." After commenting on the debates over types of cheese and "chopped steak or sliced",
Risk and Insurance magazine declared, "The only thing nearly everybody can agree on is that it all has to be piled onto a fresh, locally baked Amoroso roll." Food distributors often suggest or sell sandwiches which are inspired by the classic cheesesteak. For example,
Pillsbury provides a recipe for "Philly Cheesesteak
Wraps" which substitutes a tortilla for the bread.
Nestlé offers a "Philly Steak and Cheese" made in the form of a
Hot Pocket.
Cheese American cheese,
provolone, and
Cheez Whiz are the most commonly used cheeses or cheese products put on to the Philly cheesesteak.
The Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan said, "Provolone is for aficionados, extra-sharp for the most discriminating among them."
Geno's owner
Joey Vento said, "We always recommend the provolone. That's the real cheese." A 1986
New York Times article called Cheez Whiz "the
sine qua non of cheesesteak connoisseurs." In a 1985 interview, Pat Olivieri's nephew Frank Olivieri said that he uses "the processed cheese spread familiar to millions of parents who prize speed and ease in fixing the children's lunch for the same reason, because it is fast." Cheez Whiz was first added at Pat's South Philadelphia location by Frank Olivieri Sr. in the late 1950s. By that time cheesesteaks were already popular at the Ridge Avenue/Strawberry Mansion location, but Pat and Harry Olivieri were hesitant to serve them in South Philly because many neighborhood customers kept kosher and mixing cheese and meat on a grill is not kosher. Frank Sr. got the idea to surreptitiously add the Whiz after the sandwich was made, and the idea eventually took off. Cheez Whiz is "overwhelmingly the favorite" at Pat's, outselling runner-up American by a ratio of eight or ten to one, while Geno's claims to go through eight to ten cases of Cheez Whiz a day. According to Kosuke Chujo, who runs a cheesesteak shop in Tokyo, the cheese "was very creamy and delicious with the perfect balance of salt". ==Variations==