4 Close-Up, High-Def, Insanely Awesome Shooter's-Style Sandwiches

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated August 10, 2018
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Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Inforgraphic: Tracie Lee and Paul Cline

The classic shooter's sandwich is made by stuffing cooked steak into a hollowed out loaf of bread along with sautéed mushrooms and onions, dressing it with mustard and horseradish, then wrapping it tightly and pressing it overnight under very heavy weights. You end up with a sort of portable version of beef Wellington the next day, ready to be sliced into wedges and eaten on a picnic (or a hunt, as the case may be). But as impressive as it may be on paper, we discovered the sad reality by making the absolute best version of the original shooter. It fails at the most basic job of any great sandwich: the whole must be greater than the sum of its parts.

But the idea of a party-sized, ultra-pressed sandwich is so appealing that I've spent the last few weeks brainstorming and testing recipes for versions of shooter's-style sandwiches that actually work.

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Check out our awesome interactive infographic to take a look at four of my favorites and get an up-close and personal look at what's in between the buns.

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