2008/03/10
This one is very dear to me. Growing up in Tampa, Florida, the most prevalent cultural signifier we had was our Cuban influence. I grew up loving ropa vieja, picadillo, arroz con pollo, palomilla steak, and above all, "Cuban" sandwiches. I put it in quotes because, based on my extensive research (and I'm not being sarcastic when I say that it has been extensive), the Cuban sandwich is actually a Tampa sandwich. Sure, it may have its roots in Cuba, but as far as I can gather from my only-a-little-biased perspective, the sandwich originated among Cuban immigrants going to work in the cigar factories of Ybor City, the real heart of Tampa. As evidence for this origin, consider the fact that it traditionally contains Genoa salami. Ybor City also happened to be the center of the Italian community in Tampa. The theory is that the Cuban immigrants borrowed that Italian ingredient for their sandwich.
So in any case, I'd always wanted to make home-made Cuban sandwiches. And I mean every component homemade, to the extent feasible. This represents a halfway point. I roasted my own pork, and marinated it in the closest thing I can get to Cuban mojo (where can I get sour oranges?). I've made two attempts at Cuban bread so far, and am honing in on the right recipe (and that I can achieve with a normal home oven--quite difficult). For this one, I just used French bread, which is passably similar to Cuban bread (though vastly inferior). I made my own mayo, and mixed it up with mustard before applying it to bread. Eventually, I could make my own salami and pickle my own pickles. The cheese is probably never going to happen.
Anyway, here's an amazing sandwich:
- "Mojo"-marinated roasted pork shoulder, sliced thin
- Genoa salami
- Jarlsberg Swiss cheese
- Yellow mustard, mixed with mayo
- Kosher dill pickles
- on French bread
- PRESSED!
Since I certainly don't have a sandwich press (and most sandwich presses nowadays are bullshit panini presses instead of proper griddle-type presses), I had to improvise. I heated up a cast iron pan, then put the sandwich in a different pan with butter on top and bottom, then laid the cast iron pan on top of the sandwich and pressed down till it was nice and flattened and grilled. And then you have to slice it on the diagonal. Best sandwich ever.
Posted by Barzelay on 2008/03/10 @ 3:50 | Comments (9) | Baking, Deli
Comments
Looks delicious, but no ham?
extra points for the amount of pork on your version. As much as I love cuban sandwiches I rarely order one from a cuban restaurant I am not familiar with due to a majority of them being nothing more than glorified ham sandwiches with one tiny piece of pork on it.
Posted by: Adam at March 10, 2008 3:28 PM
Ham is redundant. I think places only put ham on there because its flavor is exactly halfway between roast pork and salami, and it's cheaper than roast pork. Cuban sandwiches didn't start out with ham, and some restaurants still don't use it. So I didn't. Still, if I happened to have some ham on hand, I might slap on a thin deli slice.
Posted by: Barzelay at March 10, 2008 3:51 PM
The Cuban is indeed the best sandwich in the world. The Tulipan Bakery in West Palm Beach, FL has the best version I've ever tasted, followed by Kool Korners, a corrugated tin shack lunch stand in Atlanta. Here in DC there are no good Cuban sandwiches. That said, a Cuban sandwich must include BOTH ham and roasted pork. Genoa salami, which usually is a disgusting, tasteless fat blob in any case, has no place on a Cuban. Also the sandwich must be made with good bread and include swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. If the sandwich is missing any of the above ingredients, it's not a Cuban.
Posted by: Megan at March 12, 2008 3:09 PM
Megan, it isn't a Cuban sandwich unless it has genoa salami. That's how it started. And again, I'm sympathetic to ham, but it is optional.
Posted by: Barzelay at March 12, 2008 6:07 PM
Does the Cuban at La Teresita have salami? I think it has ham. I don't really pay too much attention when I'm there, I just pay attention to how good it tastes, and how little it costs. If the Cubans in Tampa borrowed salami from the Italians, then its possible that they borrowed the entire concept of the pressed sandwich from the italians as well. I'm not talking about panini - fuck that shit. I'm talking about a good old fashioned italian hoagie, which originated in the same way the Cuban did - as a cheap lunchtime sandwich for workers in the italian neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA.
And as far as your quest to bake Cuban bread - I don't think it's possible where you're at due to the altitude. That's why you only really find good Cuban bread down here.
Posted by: Chris at March 13, 2008 12:30 PM
Yea it has salami. In fact, I've never encountered a cuban sandwich in Tampa that didn't have salami on it (including those awesome cuban sandwiches we got on half days in elementary school)
Posted by: Adam at March 13, 2008 5:30 PM
The Cuban at La Teresita has both salami and ham on it. You would be extremely hard-pressed (har har) to find a cuban in Tampa without salami. I've had cubans from maybe 20 different places down here and they all had it. This includes those awesome cuban sandwiches we got on half day in elementary school.
As far as the ham vs. salami debate goes, I'll would take the third option and argue that a cuban needs to have pork, ham, AND salami. That's how you find it most of the time in Tampa and that is what I'm used to eating. If I had to pick one though, I would go with the salami over the ham just for the fact that the overuse of ham in cubans has left me bitter and increasingly anti-ham
Posted by: Adam at March 13, 2008 5:38 PM
Ironically my family had me call in a take out order to La Septima tonight. Their Cuban had ham, pork, and salami. Definite overuse of ham though. I agree that all three should be there, and that roasted pork should be the star of the show. I'd also take salami over ham for the same reason that Adam mentioned.
Richard's in Seffner has a disgusting cuban, which is basically the aforementioned ham sandwich.
For maximum cubanness, I recommend having a cuban coffee after your cuban sandwich. I know that the stovetop method that I use (which is the method used in most cuban homes) probably isn't up to David's haute taste, but I think it makes a damn good cafe.
Espresso is another example of something from Italy that was taken in by Cubans.
Posted by: Chris at March 13, 2008 6:54 PM
I grew up in Port Tampa city and on these sandwiches, its nice to see a piece of my home :)
Posted by: Kaitlyn at August 31, 2009 1:41 PM