Pit beef is a delicious Baltimore-style barbecue dish that you need to try. This thinly sliced roast beef sandwich is full of smoky, meaty flavor and makes a satisfying meal. Keep reading to learn all about the origins, preparation, and best places to eat pit beef.
A Brief History of Pit Beef
Pit beef traces its origins to Baltimore in the 1960s and 1970s Several roadside stands popped up along Pulaski Highway on the east side of the city grilling and selling this roast beef sandwich The name “pit beef” was first used in print in 1968, but it took until the following decade for the dish to really take off in popularity.
Originally pit beef was an inexpensive lunch for blue-collar workers in Baltimore’s industrial neighborhoods. The sandwich mostly flew under the radar outside of the city until getting national attention in the 1990s and 2000s through media like the HBO show The Wire. Nowadays pit beef is beloved in Baltimore and considered an iconic local specialty.
What Makes Pit Beef Different?
There are a few key elements that distinguish pit beef from other barbecue:
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The Cut of Meat: Pit beef uses top round or bottom round roast, inexpensive but flavorful cuts. This makes it different from typical barbecue cuts like brisket.
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The Cooking Method: Pit beef is cooked hot and fast over charcoal, resulting in a charred exterior and pink, rare interior. This differs from low and slow smoking.
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The seasoning: A simple dry rub of salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, and onion is used. Pit beef usually does not have a sticky barbecue sauce.
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The Doneness: Pit beef is meant to be served rare to medium-rare, making it more similar to roast beef than traditional barbecue.
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The Roll: Pit beef is classically served on a Kaiser roll. The soft bread soaks up the meat juices perfectly.
How to Make Pit Beef
Making authentic pit beef at home is easy. Here are the basic steps:
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Select the Meat: Go for a 3-4 lb top round or bottom round roast. Trim excess fat.
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Make a Dry Rub: Use a simple blend of salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, etc. Coat the roast evenly.
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Let Sit: Let the seasoned roast rest in the fridge for 2-12 hours. This tenderizes the meat.
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Grill Over Charcoal: Cook over high heat until browned on the outside, then move to lower heat to finish cooking to rare doneness.
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Rest and Slice: Let roast rest for 10-20 minutes before slicing very thinly against the grain.
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Serve: Pile slices high on a Kaiser roll with onions and horseradish sauce (the classic “Tiger” sauce).
It’s easy to achieve pit beef’s signature char and smoky flavor at home with just a little preparation. Grilling over charcoal is ideal, but you can also use a hot cast iron skillet.
Toppings and Sides for Pit Beef
While Tiger sauce is the classic condiment for pit beef, you can customize your sandwich:
- Horseradish Sauce
- BBQ Sauce
- Mayo or Aioli
- Hot Sauce
- Pickles
- Lettuce and Tomato
For sides, pit beef is often served with:
- French Fries
- Coleslaw
- Potato Salad
- Beans
- Mac and Cheese
A cold beer or bubbly soda wash it all down perfectly.
The Best Pit Beef Restaurants in Baltimore
There are a number of excellent pit beef spots scattered around Baltimore. Here are some of the most popular:
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Chaps Pit Beef: Perhaps the most famous pit beef destination, with several locations. Juicy meat and perfectly balanced Tiger sauce.
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Pioneer Pit Beef: Classic flavors since the 1960s. Get the combo platter to sample all their smoked meats.
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Big Bad Wolf’s House of BBQ: Gourmet pit beef in fun, punk rock digs. Great sides too.
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Hollerback Grill: Along with pit beef, they serve up crab cakes, ribs, and more.
Baltimore locals are sure to have strong opinions on who makes the best pit beef. Part of the fun is sampling multiple spots and deciding your favorite.
How to Order Pit Beef Like a Pro
Here are some tips for ordering the perfect pit beef sandwich:
- Ask for rare or medium rare to get the right texture
- Get it with Tiger sauce to go classic
- Add raw onion for some crunch
- Order a side of mac and cheese to make it a meal
- Eat it while it’s hot for maximum juicy flavor
- Bring napkins, as the sandwich can get messy
With these simple tips, you’ll be ready to order and enjoy pit beef like a true Baltimore local.
Is Pit Beef Considered Barbecue?
There is some debate around whether pit beef technically counts as “barbecue” since it differs from traditional low and slow barbecue styles. However, since the meat is cooked over live fire/coals, most people categorize it under the broad umbrella of barbecue.
Regardless of taxonomy, pit beef stands on its own as a unique, delicious, and iconic regional style of grilled/smoked meat. The label doesn’t matter as much as the incredible flavor.
Pit Beef Can Satisfy Any Meat Lover
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It’s a joke in my family that whenever I step off the plane in Baltimore, my hometown, the first thing I want is crab: steamed crabs, crab cakes, crab dip, cream of crab soup, crab fluff (a battered deep-fried crab cake), crab imperial — crab something. This past September I wrote a story about returning to Maryland to eat as much of its signature food as I could handle. I hadn’t spent over a week in the Baltimore area during the summer since I was a kid. That trip home fulfilled a deep longing, one I didn’t even realize I’d had, to become reacquainted with my complex, beloved city.
Winter, though, is not for Maryland crab. Restaurants may ship in crabmeat fresh from states along the Gulf coast (particularly Louisiana and Texas) or from overseas, but Chesapeake crabs burrow and lay dormant in the colder months.
But other Maryland-specific foods can be had this time of year. Like pit beef sandwiches. In food and travel articles it’s often referenced as Maryland’s answer to barbecue. I can follow this line of thinking, though I grew up eating these sandwiches, and no one I knew ever put them in the same category as, say, smoked ribs. Pit beef was pit beef. The recipe is typically top round roast grilled over charcoal; sliced to order into a thin, jumbled pile; and served on a Kaiser roll or maybe white bread. The classic condiment for these sandwiches is horseradish sauce, though sweet, tomato-based barbecue sauce had also slipped into the mix by the 1980s.
Pit beef’s origins are muddy. Baltimore food writer Richard Gorelick did some digging a couple of years ago and found few references for pit beef before the 1970s, when the dish emerged as a popular item sold from stands centered around Pulaski Highway (also known as Route 40), a sometimes forlornly industrial stretch that leads to the city’s northern suburbs. I wonder if Marylanders didn’t just initially refer to this creation as a roast beef sandwich, and the term “pit beef” was coined later as a snappier marketing moniker.
However they were invented and whatever they might be called, these things are wonderful. Chaps Pit Beef, which sits on Pulaski Highway in the parking lot of the Gentlemen’s Gold Club, is the Baltimore restaurant most regularly featured when food-themed television shows zero in on this regional specialty. Having researched my share of pit beef, I favor a place on the other side of the Baltimore from Chaps, technically in nearby Catonsville, called Pioneer Pit Beef. Pioneer is little more than a stand flanked by two picnic tables; most customers get their order to go. The cooks offer the beef, kept hot, in every degree of doneness. A staffer hands you a slice to taste before he thinly shaves the beef for the sandwich on a deli slicer. I ask for mine medium rare and with tiger sauce, a mixture of horseradish and mayo. Sometimes I dribble on some barbecue sauce as well, which reminds me of how I ate them growing up.
I don’t wait to take it home. Even if it’s chilly outside, like it was when I visited Pioneer last month, I plunk myself down at a picnic table and scarf down my sandwich right there. Always on the side: thick, Boardwalk-style fries with gravy. Fries with gravy are another Maryland fixation — something I didn’t remember until I started spending more time again in my home state. No wonder I embraced the recent national poutine craze so fully.
My holiday jaunt to Baltimore feels far away; I’m already crisscrossing the country to report on the restaurants that most define dining in America right now. I’ll be back in Maryland in the summertime — if you have suggestions for pit beef (or anything crab-related), reach me at [email protected]. More soon from my next stop on the road.
Pioneer Pit Beef: 1600 North Rolling Road (at the corner of Johnnycake Road — love that for a street name), Catonsville, MD, (410) 455-0015
Smoked Pit Beef Recipe
FAQ
What makes pit beef different?
Unlike barbecue, the meat is cooked quickly at high temperatures, served rare, and has a light smoke flavor. Pit beef historically was sold at roadside stands. It gained a national reputation from the HBO show, The Wire, which is set in Baltimore.
Is pit beef a Baltimore thing?
The origin of pit beef dates back to the 1970s, along Pulaski Highway on the east side of Baltimore. Pit beef was first sold out of roadside stands and trailers, and some of which later developed into restaurants!
Is pit beef the same as brisket?
Several things make it distinctive in the realm of American barbecue. For starters, pit beef is grilled, not smoked, so it lacks the heavy hickory or mesquite flavor characteristic of Texas- or Kansas City-style barbecue. It is also ideally served rare, which would be unthinkable for a Texas-style brisket.
What is the best cut of meat for pit beef?
- 3-4 lbs top or bottom round (we used top round, sometimes labeled London Broil)
- Dizzy Pig Cow Lick beef rub to coat (also good with Raising the Steaks or Game On!)
- Coarse salt.
- 1 small red or yellow onion, sliced thin.
What is pit beef?
Unlike barbecue, the meat is cooked quickly at high temperatures, served rare, and has a light smoke flavor. The preparation is a local specialty in the area around Baltimore, Maryland. The origin of the specific name “pit beef” dates to the 1970s on Baltimore’s east side, along Pulaski Highway, and became popular in the 1980s.
Is pit beef a regional dish?
Pit beef is indeed a beloved classic in Baltimore. It is more akin to roast beef than a rack of ribs and is made with thin slices of top round. The meat is cooked to a pink medium-rare and then finished on a smoky charcoal grill, making it a regional dish in the U.S.
What is Baltimore Pit beef?
Baltimore Pit beef is a hot roast beef sandwich consisting of beef top round or bottom round that has been cooked quickly over hot charcoals. Start by trimming any silver skin that has been left on the top round by the butcher.
Is a pit a big cut of beef?
However, walking around carnivals or local fairs I’ve always noticed that the grills, or “pits,” are loaded with a real big cut of meat. The cut they use is certainly bigger than the typical eye round. Most pit beef stands use the full beef round which has the top, eye, and bottom pieces. This is a lot of beef!
Where did pit beef come from?
The origin of the specific name “pit beef” dates to the 1970s on Baltimore’s east side, along Pulaski Highway, and became popular in the 1980s. Although associated with the working-class neighborhoods around Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard, pit beef owes much to the German and Jewish food cultures of Baltimore.
What is a pit beef sandwich?
Pit Beef is a Baltimore style traditional hot roast beef sandwich. Consisting of beef top round or bottom round that has been cooked quickly over hot charcoals until it is charred on the outside and rare (120 degrees F) to medium rare (130 degrees F) on the inside.