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.

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.

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  • Chaps Pit Beef

    Order The pit beef on a kaiser, rare, with tiger sauce and raw onion.

    Chaps Pit Beef on Pulaski Highway is the benchmark for Baltimore pit beef, charcoal-grilling top round rare and piling it on a kaiser with tiger sauce.

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Make it at home

Serves 440 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds top round roast
  • 2 tablespoons coarse salt
  • 1 tablespoon coarse black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 4 kaiser rolls
  • Half a cup mayonnaise mixed with 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish for tiger sauce
  • Thinly sliced raw white onion

Method

  1. Rub the top round all over with the salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.
  2. Grill over hot charcoal, turning often, until the outside is well charred but the centre stays rare, about 20 minutes.
  3. Rest the beef for 10 minutes, then slice it as thinly as you can against the grain.
  4. Pile the beef on kaiser rolls, spread tiger sauce on the top bun and add raw onion.
  5. Serve at once, while the beef is still warm and the char is fresh.

Editor tip. 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.

Common allergens: Gluten, Egg.