A Chopped Cheese" is a popular NEW YORK CITY Sandwich made in Bodegas in East Harlem, and now all over New York City. A chopped cheese sandwich features Ground Beef sautéed with Onions, and melted Cheese (usually Yellow American Cheese). These ingredients are cooked and chopped together on a Flattop Griddle (or in a pan if making at home). These ingredients are put into a Hero Roll, and topped with lettuce, Tomato, and condiments like Mayonnaise, and /or Ketchup. The sandwich is known for its tasty savory flavour, and substance to satisfy ones hunger. The sandwich has been described as a deconstructed Hamburger, and is a Staples of New York City food culture.
Key Components
Meat: GROUND BEEF, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, or adobo seasoning.
CHEESE Typically American cheese, melted into the meat mixture.
Vegetables: Sautéed ONIONS are standard; lettuce and tomatoes are common additions.
Condiments: Mayonnaise and ketchup are popular choices, often spread on the roll.
Bread: A long Hero Roll or hoagie roll.
HOW to MAKE a CHOPPED CHEESE SANDWICH
Preparation :
Sauté chopped Onions on a griddle or skillet.
Add Ground Beef patties, seasoning them as they cook.
Chop the meat and onions together as they cook, mixing thoroughly.
Add CHEESE slices and let them melt into the meat mixture.
Spread condiments on the roll, add the meat/cheese mixture, and top with lettuce and tomato.
ORIGIN
The sandwich is widely believed to have originated in East Harlem, New York City, with many crediting Blue Sky Deli (also known as Hajji's) as the birthplace.
Place oven rack in lowest position. Preheat oven to 325°F. Place roasting rack in shallow roasting pan. Mix butter, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper in small bowl.
Place turkey, breast-side up, in prepared pan. Rub 2 tablespoons butter mixture inside cavity of turkey. Stuff with onion and celery. Spread remaining butter mixture evenly over turkey and under skin. Cover loosely with heavy duty foil.
Roast 2 hours, adding an extra 15 minutes per pound for larger turkeys. Remove foil. Roast 1 hour longer or until internal temperature reaches 165°F (175°F in thigh), basting occasionally with pan juices. Remove turkey from oven. Let stand 20 minutes. Transfer to platter or carving board and slice. Reserve pan juices to make gravy, such as our Perfect Turkey Gravy, or to serve with turkey.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
Cook cavatappi according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
Combine all three shredded cheeses in a bowl and divide half into another bowl. Set aside.
Combine garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Divide in half and set aside.
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add half the seasoning mixture and flour. Stir until the mixture becomes paste-like, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add evaporated milk and whisk until thick. Add heavy cream and the rest of the seasonings and mix until combined. Whisk in Dijon mustard until thick. Slowly add in half the cheese, allowing it to melt before adding more.
Stir in macaroni until coated with cheese sauce.
Add a layer of macaroni and then a layer of shredded cheese to the prepared baking dish. Repeat layers.
Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Finish by broiling until top is golden brown, about 2 minutes.
Originally known as the mixto or mixed sandwich, the Cuban sandwich was introduced to Florida by cigar laborers arriving from Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century. The dish consists of lengthwise sliced Cuban bread, roasted pork, glazed ham, Swiss cheese, thin slices of dill pickles, and, according to some sources, mustard. When assembled, the sandwich needs to be pressed in la plancha, a sandwich press similar to a panini press, but without ridged surfaces. An important ingredient of the sandwich is the crusty Cuban bread, which is traditionally baked with palmetto leaves inserted along the top of the loaf, creating the recognizable split crust. Palmetto leaves allow the bread to expand during baking, the same as slashes do on other kinds of bread dough. The leaves do not influence the flavor of the bread; they are used simply for creating the signature crusty ridge. Key West and Tampa, the two big cigar factory areas which housed many foreign workers, including the Cubans, have different versions of the sandwich. In Tampa, besides the ingredients mentioned above, they also add Genoa salami, whereas, in Key West, the dish always includes lettuce and tomato.
The first versions of the dish were supposedly made around the year 1500 by the Taíno tribe in Cuba, with casabe bread, made from yucca. Two thin, crunchy slices of bread were filled with fish and bird meat. With the arrival of the Europeans, the natives started to incorporate pork and ham into their diet and replaced crunchy and hard casabe with a doughy, bread-like alternative. By the 1930s, the mixto was regularly found in the cafeterias of Cuba and was well-liked by sugar mill employees. Since the Cuban cigar manufacturers moved their business to Florida in the late 19th century, the Cubans often traveled to Florida for employment. The oldest written notices of the sandwich, as it is known today, can be found in the descriptions of workers' cafes in Ybor City and near West Tampa at the turn of the century. The Cuban sandwich, or Cubano, was a workingman's lunch for the workers employed in the cigar industry. Some mention that the workers brought their sandwiches from home, secured by toothpicks, while others claim the sandwiches were sold on-site for 15 cents apiece. At some point in time, Genoa salami was added to the sandwich, influenced by the Italians. By the 1960s, the dish spread to Miami.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS :
ROASTED PORK
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 cup minced onion
1 cup sour orange juice
½ cup Spanish olive oil
1 (2-pound) boneless center-cut pork loin roast
CUBAN SANDWICH
4 Cuban breads
butter, softened
dill pickles, sliced
1 pound thinly sliced roasted Cuban pork
1 pound thinly-sliced good quality ham
½ thinly sliced mild Swiss cheese
yellow mustard
Step 1
For the marinade, mash the garlic and salt in a pestle and mortar. Put the mashed mixture in a small bowl and add onion, oregano, and the sour orange juice. Mix altogether. Add the mash to a saucepan in which you've heated some oil. Stir well. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Step 2
Pour the majority of the marinade over the pork, which you've pierced thoroughly using a knife or a fork. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Step 3
Place the meat on a rack in a roasting pan into a preheated oven (325 degrees). Drizzle the pork with the remaining marinade. Roast until completely cooked, about 20 minutes per pound (until the meat thermometer registers 160 degrees). Grease the meat occasionally with cooking juices. When cooked, let the pork rest for at least 20 minutes before cutting it to thin slices.
Step 4
Bring the leftover pan juices to a boil and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Use this juice to moisten the meat in the sandwiches.
Step 5
Divide the bread into four 8-inched sections and slice them in half horizontally. Spread the butter on each side of the halves then stuff the sandwiches in the following order: pickles, roasted pork, ham, and cheese. Add mustard if desired.
Step 6
In a preheated pancake griddle or a frying pan coated with cooking spray, press sandwiches, one by one, using a heavy iron skillet or a bacon press - the aim is to flatten the bread to a third of its original size. Grill until the cheese melts and the bread becomes golden in color (about 2 to 3 minutes on each side). Repeat the process for all the sandwiches. Before serving, slice each sandwich diagonally in half.
This is part of a scene in Francis Ford Coppola’s famed Italian-American mob-movie The Godfather. The scene is during Connie Corleone’s Wedding to Carlo. Paulie and Mob Guy-1 are assigned by Sonny to be guarding the outside of the Corleone Compound from any unwanted intruders (FBI, rival gangs, anybody).Mob Guy # 1 got a couple of Gabagool Sandwiches from one of the cooks preparing the Wedding Banquet for Connie and Don Corleone’s guests at Connie’s Wedding. Paulie and Guy # 1 can’t eat with the guest, but they are hungry. “Hey they’re Italian-American!” And Gabagool will definitely fit the bill. Gabagool, aka Gabagul, or similar, is an Italian Salumi pork-product made from the neck-meat of a pig. There are several variations of the name, including; Capicola (most common), Ham Capicola, Coppa, Capocollo, and Capicollo.“Gabagool” is slang for Capicola? It is not “slang” but Neapolitan dialect that many Italian-Americans use for Capicola, including Tony Sopranos and those real-life guys who don Big Pinky
Rings.
A Gabagool Sandwich
So you wanna make a Gabagool. The preferred sandwich is on Italian Bread or a hero-roll from a great Bread Baker like, Parisi Bakers in New York’s Little Italy. Then you gotta get the Gabagool! You get yourself top-quality Capicola from your favorite Pork Store, Satriale’s if you’re in North Jersey, at Di Palo’s in Little Italy, or Faicco’s if you’re downtown New York and Greenwich Village or at their Brooklyn outpost. You’re gonna want Provolone or Mozz, I prefer Provolone. Get some peppers, Hot Cherry Peppers like Tony, Paulie, and Silvio, or as others like myself, with Roast Sweet Peppers. That’s all you need. To make a Gabagool Sub, you need a good sub roll or crusty Italian-Bread, and Gabagool (Capicola) of course, thin sliced Provolone, and either, Genoa Salami, Mortadella, Prosciutto (Proshoot), or Sopressata if you like. Put the Gabagool, Provolone and any other if any Salumi product on the bottom half of your bread, top with shredded Iceberg Lettuce, add a slice of ripe Tomato, then thin sliced Red Onion, and sprinkle on Salt, Black Pepper, Oregano, Olive Oil, and Red Wine Vinegar and “you’re set!” Set if you don’t want it “Hot.” If you do? Then again, get yourself some Hot Italian Cherry Peppers and throw them. That’s a Gabagool Sub. If you want just a Gabagool and not a Sub, get a nice smaller roll, some roast red sweet peppers (or Hot), the Capicola, and sliced Provolone. Pile everything on between the bread, and Voila, you’ve got a Gabagool, just like Tony.Excerpted From SUNDAY SAUCE by Daniel Bellino Zwicke ... Available on AMAZON.comPS … For a great Gabagool Sandwich in New York, go to either Parisi’s Italian Deli in Little Italy, or Faicco’s Italian Specialties (Pork Store) on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, for the best Italian Sandwiches on God’s Good Earth!
