Top round grilled hot and fast over charcoal until charred outside and rare inside, sliced thin and piled on a kaiser roll with tiger sauce and raw onion. It is Baltimore's answer to barbecue.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Pit beef grew up along the East Side and Pulaski Highway, where roadside stands grilled cheap cuts of beef over open charcoal for a working lunch crowd. Unlike slow-smoked barbecue, it is cooked hot and fast and served rare, the char doing the flavour work. Tiger sauce, a horseradish-spiked mayo, and a slice of raw onion are the only accompaniments that matter, and stands like Chaps on Pulaski Highway keep the tradition alive.
Common allergens: Gluten, Egg
Tip from the editors. Slice it paper-thin against the grain; a thick pit-beef sandwich is a tough one, and the thin shavings are what make it tender.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Chaps Pit Beef on Pulaski Highway delivers a hefty, cheap pit beef sandwich, charcoal-grilled rare top round on a kaiser with tiger sauce and onion.
Try: Pit beef sandwich
Tip: A pit beef sandwich is a meal on its own; order it rare with tiger sauce.
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