Spiedies

This is a regional dish specific to the Southern Tier of New York, think Binghamton, near where I live. Curiously, I've never actually had one! What I ended up making is delicious - I like the combination of the marinade and the grilling.

Based on my vague recollection of what they should look like and the helpful Wikipedia page , here we go.

I was a little unsure of what meat to use, so I selected Angus chuck stewing meat. My hope is that the long marinating process will tenderize it. 

I cut some of the larger pieces to make them a little more uniform and around 1/2 to 3/4" cubes. I also seasoned it with salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper.

It gets marinated in a sauce of oil, vinegar, lemon juice and Italian spices. I used a prepared version from Brooks' House of Bar-B-Que. Lupo's is apparently good, too.

Though you can easily marinate in a container or a zip-lock bag, I vacuum marinated mine. It really draws he marinade into the meat, requires much less marinade, and basically never leaks. You're supposed to marinate for at least 2 days, though under vacuum I marinated for slightly less than that.

They're apparently served on a soft white sub roll. These are the ones I used. The idea is that you stick the skewer in the bun and use the bun to pull the meat off. (And these were in the freezer - they are not way past their expiration date!)

This sort of implies that you should only put as much meat on the skewer as will fit in your roll if you're using small one-serving skewers as I am.

I tried to put the meat on in a way to make it thin and wide. Thin, so it cooks more easily, and wide, so it covers more of the bun. I ended up with enough meat for 6 skewers, but I only have 4 metal skewers, and that's all that will fit on my grill, anyway.

I vacuum sealed and froze the last two skewers worth, raw.

Here they are on my very small infrared propane grill. 3 minutes, flip, and 3 minutes more. Incidentally, it's a good idea to leave a little of the pointy end of the skewer sticking out like that. If you pick up that end first, you can loosen the meat from the grill more easily when it comes time to flip it.

All cooked! Looks good!

I'm pretty sure this is how it's supposed to look, without the top bread, but I think I would personally prefer more meat and less bread.

I wonder if there should be some condiments on the bread. Maybe some mayo? The Wikipedia page didn't help me with that. Here it is with the top bun.

I vacuum sealed and froze the 3 remaining cooked servings, too.

These were tasty and quite inexpensive!

I also used the marinated meat to make a version with vegetables and homemade ciabatta bread: grilled veggies, meat and bread . Not at all authentic, but I like this version better: