Italian beef — thinly sliced, slow-roasted beef piled on a long Italian roll and dipped in (or doused with) the seasoned cooking jus, topped with giardiniera (hot pickled vegetables) or sweet peppers — is Chicago's other great sandwich (alongside the deep dish pizza debate) and a product of the Italian-American communities of Chicago's West Side and Taylor Street. The sandwich was developed in the 1930s at stands serving Italian-American weddings and picnics, where a single beef roast was sliced thin and stretched across many sandwiches by using the cooking jus to soak the bread and add flavour. Al's #1 Italian Beef (since 1938) and Portillo's are the benchmarks.
A beef roast (top round or sirloin) seasoned with Italian herbs (oregano, basil, garlic, black pepper) and slow-roasted at 150°C for 3-4 hours until tender. The roast is chilled and sliced paper-thin (a deli slicer is required — hand-slicing cannot achieve the necessary thinness). The sliced beef is reheated in the seasoned cooking jus (the pan drippings extended with beef stock and Italian seasoning). The wet, jus-soaked beef is piled on a long Italian roll — and the sandwich is then "dipped": the entire assembled sandwich is dunked briefly into the jus, soaking the bread. Topped with giardiniera (a hot, vinegar-pickled vegetable mix of celery, cauliflower, carrots, sport peppers, and olives in oil) or sweet roasted peppers.
1) Slice paper-thin — the thinness is the technique. Thick slices produce a roast beef sandwich; paper-thin slices layered in jus produce Italian beef. 2) The jus is the soul — the seasoned cooking liquid that the beef is reheated in and that the sandwich is dipped into. Without the jus, it's a roast beef sandwich on a roll. 3) The dip: "dry" (no dip), "wet" (a ladle of jus poured over the sandwich), or "dipped" (the whole sandwich submerged briefly in the jus). Ordering "dipped" means the bread is saturated, the jus is dripping, and napkins are required by the dozen. 4) Giardiniera is the standard hot topping — its vinegar-oil-heat cuts through the rich, beefy jus.
"Combo" — Italian beef AND Italian sausage on the same roll. The most decadent version and a Chicago institution. The FX show *The Bear* (2022) brought Italian beef to national attention through the fictional "The Original Beef of Chicagoland." The show's depiction of the sandwich's cultural weight is accurate.
Slicing thick — this is not a roast beef sandwich. The meat must be paper-thin. Skipping the dip — the jus-soaked bread is the experience.
Arthur Schwartz — Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food; Chicago food tradition documentation