[Larrikin]

Provolone melts exactly as well as American when layered on top of a burger or any other hot sandwich. I don't know why you're throwing it in a pot? If you're trying to make a cheese sauce why wouldn't you use cheddar instead of American cheese slices?

Italian beef share many of the same components as cheese steaks besides the beef like the onions and peppers. The meat is also cut similarly. It's really just a couple differences in preparation that makes them different sandwiches.

[tptacek]

I'm not saying you can't use provolone or Swiss on a burger or that American is somehow categorically better, I'm just saying that deli cheeses do not all melt as well as American does. Cheddar melts even worse than provolone! It's simply not emulsified the way American is. You are spreading cheese misfeasance. Mischeesance! I will not have it.

I'm a Chicagoan and like, the only thing I really care about, other than a more accurate sandwich taxonomy that doesn't place an Italian beef on a line of sandwich development with cheese steaks, is that (1) Chicago pizza as understood by Chicagoans is cut into squares, and (2) it's better than the deep dish stuff, which is a novelty. Is a NY slice better? Sure, whatever, IDGAF. We have the superior tacos, that's all that matters.

The meat in a beef is not only not cut the same way or cooked the same way, it's also not the same meat! The only "components" in a beef are braised beef (braise a ribeye roast and they will put you in jail) and giardiniera, maybe simmered bell pepper if you're a weirdo. There aren't onions on a beef. Definitely no cheese. Was there cheese on the beef you got? That wasn't a beef, they were trying to steal your kidneys. We have signs about this all over town, did you not notice? And there isn't giardiniera on a cheese steak.

[Larrikin]

Al's offers cheese on all their sandwiches. One of the last beefs I tried I tried it with cheese for the first time and it really didn't do much to improve it for me.

Texturally they are similar but you're right the meat is prepared differently. I never had a beef that was prepared with the care that you see on first season of The Bear and had given up trying to find a good place after my first year after finding not much difference in the places I went.

But I disagree with you about the cheese still. Provolone melts and spreads just as American does. You can make a smash burger with provolone and the burgers fuse together just the same. It will also taste better

[tptacek]

None of the Al's other than the one on Taylor is a real Al's! The rest are fronts for organ thieves.

I'm not even saying you can't make a smashburger with provolone. But it doesn't melt and spread like American cheese does. It can't. And if you try to melt cheddar in a pot without an emulsifying agent like cornstarch, it'll oil out. Gross! That's why people throw slices of American in with the cheddar (though we're a citrate household; citrate is American cheese extract, and it'll melt anything. Brick of parm. Celery. Masonry bricks.)

I don't have a strong opinion on beef vs. cheese steak; I might even prefer the cheese steak except I've never had one and not felt like grim death afterwards, going to bed with Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight" playing in my guts. All I'm saying is they're different sandwiches.

[kasey_junk]

Point of order. It’s definitive that a ny slice is _not_ better than a chicago deep dish _because ny slices are the worst_. It’s not a statement of support for weird lasagna, it’s commentary on the practice of eating grease rugs.