January 29, 2024

Inspired by Illinois

THE MEAL

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I keep wanting to type or say “Inspired by Chicago” when referring to this meal. I swear I tried not to make this entirely Chicago-centric, but it’s hard to deny that Chicago is the main influence on our perspective of Illinois, since it’s the 3rd-largest city in the U.S.!

I’ve driven through Illinois a couple times since moving to Indiana, but I haven’t actually stopped to visit. I went to Chicago once for a high school choir event, and I’ve been meaning to go back now that it’s less than 3 hours away from me. There are so many foods I want to try! But that’s why I’m learning how to make some of them from home—I’m such a homebody and really don’t do enough exploring!

Italian Beef Sandwich

There were so many foods to choose from to represent Illinois. I could’ve gone with Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs, rib tips, or a horseshoe sandwich (which is a better representation of southern Illinois but was too close to the Kentucky hot brown, sorry). But after reading The Dresden Files for over a decade and binge-watching The Bear last year, I knew I had to go with the iconic Italian beef sandwich.

This sandwich originated in Chicago around the 1930s, when Italian-American families sliced beef as thin as possible to make it stretch to feed more people at weddings, and used au jus to cook the meat and soak the bread to give both added flavor. Now you can find Italian beef at countless hot dog stands and restaurants in Chicago.

When I was first looking up recipes, I saw that the beef usually takes upwards of 18 hours to make, and I was so worried that it was going to be a lengthy, complicated process similar to making smoked brisket. But to my relief, you can easily make Italian beef in a crock pot with just a handful of ingredients! All you need is a rump roast, a can of beef consommé, a packet of Italian salad dressing mix, pepperoncini peppers, and giardiniera (a mix of pickled vegetables including olives, carrots, and celery)!

It made my mouth water just putting the ingredients into the crock pot, and then it was like Christmas Eve waiting to see what would appear the next morning. When it finally came time to eat, it was so delicious on a French bread roll, especially when dipped in the au jus. The meat was so tender and packed full of peppery flavor. When I ran out of bread to eat it on, I put it over mashed potatoes, and that was delicious too! I’m sure mine is nothing compared to what they make in the Windy City, but it’s definitely something I would make again.

Fried Onions

As I mentioned before, there were tons of options for what to make to represent Illinois, but weirdly, everything I found seemed to be a main dish. I actually struggled quite a bit to come up with a side or drink that was definitively iconic to Illinois. From what I can tell, Italian beef sandwiches usually come with fries, which I’ve already made a couple times. And their state vegetable is corn, but I’m kind of corned-out after doing so many other corn dishes for the Midwest. So instead, I went with fried onions, which you can definitely find in Illinois, even if they’re not specific to just that area.

I couldn’t find much history about where fried onions came from, but they’re a popular snack throughout the world, not just the U.S. There are a lot of variations, but this kind I made could more accurately be called “French fried onions.” The onion slices are just soaked in a milk/water mixture, then tossed in a flour mixture before being fried, giving them a satisfying crunch without drowning the onion flavor in a thick batter. They were very so tasty and so simple to make, though they were definitely only worth eating immediately after frying. The leftovers were not great.

Popcorn and V8

The world’s first mobile popcorn machine made its debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, and it was named Illinois’s official state snack food in 2003! I didn’t know how to go about making popcorn from scratch, so I just made some in the microwave to go with this meal. 🙂 Chicago-style popcorn is a mix of cheesy corn and caramel corn, which I could’ve easily gotten around Christmastime but didn’t want to go out of my way to try to find on a very blizzardy weekend in January.

As for the drink for this meal, everything I found said that the Illinois drink of choice is either beer or whiskey. Since I don’t drink either one, I bought some V8 instead. Because, fun fact, V8 juice was invented in Illinois! It was made to be an affordable, nutritious drink during the Great Depression with 8 vegetables in it (hence the name). It was originally tomato-based and is still most commonly associated with tomato juice, but I went with a fruity version because tomato juice just isn’t my favorite. It was pretty good!

Pumpkin Brownies

For an Illinois dessert, there were two things I definitely could’ve made and would’ve loved to make: brownies, which first appeared at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893; and pumpkin pie, which was named the official state pie in 2015. Illinois is the top pumpkin-producing state in the country, so I knew I had to do something with pumpkin. But to be honest, I got my fill of pumpkin pie in November and December, and it’s very similar to the sweet potato pie I made for North Carolina. Brownies sounded much more appealing. So I mixed the two ideas and made pumpkin brownies!

Luckily I still had leftover pumpkin puree in my pantry from last autumn, and it was easy enough to make two batters—one brownie with chocolate chips, one pumpkin with walnuts—layer them in a pan, swirl them together a bit, and bake! The result was like a denser pumpkin chocolate chip cookie mixed with a brownie. A pumpkin brookie, if you will. SO good. This would be a great recipe during the autumn pumpkin season, so I’m definitely going to keep it in mind for later this year!