I didn’t know Amoroso supplies the steak too
We had a shop here that had the rolls shipped in, but we have lots of cows and ranches so our meat is local.
At the Philly shops we’ve visited, there is a long plancha-style grill. Precooked onions toward the far end. Meat is cooked quickly, just flipped around, much of it actually gets more steamed than grilled. Pushed to the center, mixed with the cooked onions and cheese, stuffed into waiting rolls, sent out, repeat. This IS NOT STEAK in the normal connotation, like Arby’s is not roast beef as we think of it. I mentioned “sear” as something one might accomplish at home; in no way does it occur in a shop.
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EXCEPT at the shop that used to be here. As predominantly a take and bake pizza place, they had “nothing” to cook on. Before Kunckle Dragger the place was a hair salon.
When they added cheese steaks to the menu they purchased a single electric hob, so they did it in a skillet the same way I would do at home. If you walked in for one my recollection was it took her about 10 minutes to put one together.
A primer…
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I am not sure I agree with the low and slow thing. I’m thinking about my new found love of the smash burger, which is done in a smokin’ hot cast iron skillet for 3 minutes. Literally the most flavorful burger I’ve ever had.
I’m thinking that if I did the shrooms, onions, and peppers in advance, then did the smash burgers… adding the cheese and veggies after the flip, and then a rough chop a minute later… I’d come away with something pretty spectacular.
Not exactly a cheese steak, but pretty much the same ingredients with a different texture. Gonna give it a try as soon as I find the right bread.
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Exactly!!!
So about Amoroso rolls… I have only found them in extreme quantity online. 18 on Amazon, and 48 to 60 on webstaurant… in the neighborhood of $1.50 to $1.70 per roll after shipping.
Price seems ok, but have read they do not freeze well, so I am kinda giving up on these and will be looking for a soft French or sourdough roll from the local Safeway.
Thanks… but don’t do Facebook.
I’ll summarize.
Scorn heaped upon Amoroso from those in the know.
That was a typo as I’m not sure where the meat came from but the rolls were imported from Philly
Sounded perfectly reasonable to me.
We use to get Greek gyro meat prepackaged along with the pita bread at WinCo.
Straight from Chicago. 
I’ve been making a lot of cheese steaks lately, I posted about it here:
You can partially freeze and slice thin as others have said. I also have one of these which is awesome and totally easy to clean: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=manual+meat+slicer&ref=nb_sb_noss
As for tips and tricks - I’ll chop of the fat bits from the steak and start with that in the pan to get it rendered, or if i don’t have excess fat bacon fat is awesome too. Throw in onions, then meat. Let them hang in their own side of the pan. Don’t worry about getting the steak in any special configuration, just let them go wherever in the pan and just give it a press to make contact. As someone mentioned above, “real” philly cheesesteak is more steamed than seared, because they are cooking such large quantities. The trick to getting that seared brown flavor at home is to toss your stuff in the pan and leave it alone. Get the onions almost burned, same with the steak. You can even do like a partially pink but well browned cheesesteak this way. You don’t even have to toss or flip the steaks around, the top will get pink while the bottom gets crusty.
For cheese it’s personal pref but I am heavily biased towards gooey yellow cheese. Velveeta, butter and half and half is what I use. You mentioned mushrooms, I don’t think it’s a worthwhile addition to a cheesesteak but if you want mushrooms I would highly recommend the Cook’s illustrated method, you can find a video on Youtube by searching for America’s test kitchen mushrooms.
If you have a slicer or can slice thin enough, basically any cut is fine. Ribeye is classic but there are famous places that are using round. As long as its thin and you hit it with enough beef or bacon fat it will taste fine. Chuck would probably be the best bang for the buck. As for why using something like ribeye - there’s this misconception that you can’t tell shitty lean meat when it’s cooked through but it’s actually the opposite. Fatty cuts shine most compared to others especially when it is cooked through, because the fat keeps it juicy. The whole “cook the shitty steak for the well done eater” thing is absolute nonsense.
Bread doesn’t even really matter after that, I wouldn’t focus on getting any specific type of bread, use what you like! In the linked picture I used a sliced bread that’s a bit airy and has some chew. Toasted up it goes really good with a cheesesteak giving it a nice crunch even though it’s far from traditional. You generally have a choice to go with a soft steamy vs toasted crispy, and both are great depending on what you’re looking for.
And along the lines of the smashburger you mentioned… check out chopped cheese recipes, it’s basically a burger/cheesesteak baby.
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Today’s cheese steak. Sliced ribeye, cheap american singles and onions. On an everything roll! It was good but needed more meat. I wanted to show how you can get a combination of deep browning and pink meat by not moving the meat around. Same with onions, you get some black and some cooked through.
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Since I have had no success so far in tracking down Shannon (the proprietor of Knuckle Dragger) I decided to check out the local Safeway for bread. The best I came away with was their “Signature Select French Hoagie Rolls”. At about 7.5 inches, they’re a bit smaller than the Amoroso rolls, and they’re pre-sliced (which I wish they weren’t), but they have a similar soft texture and smell great.
So later today I’ll be doing a smashed Philly Cheese (ground) Steak with a fatty, fresh ground Chuck, sautéed onions, shrooms, and bell peppers in EVOO, with deli American cheese. I’m gonna prep a splash of soy/Worcestershire sauce just in case I think it needs it… so stay tuned for a photo or two and my feelings about the end result.
Ok… delicious. Did onions, then shrooms, and peppers. Onions were a little too done so next time it will be shrooms, then onions, and then peppers.
Based on how good this was I don’t think I’m gonna mess with sliced steak.
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Ok I have done this pup quite a few times now, both for me and a friend (he was doubtful when he saw the meatballs, but blown away in the end).
So here is the tried and true recipe: https://scottinpollock.us/cheesesteak.html
Obviously, if your timing is good at getting the cast iron just to the smoke point 3 minutes before the veggies are done you won’t need to set them aside as mentioned in step 2.
Enjoy!
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I don’t mean to quibble, but isn’t a meeatball grinder a meatball sandwich whether you deconstruct it or not?
Either that or you’ve devised a new category. 
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Hmmm… well they’re not really meatballs… just fairly fatty ground beef formed into balls so they can be evenly smashed (no seasoning or other ingredients).
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