When I was in high school back in the '70's, I worked at a place in Bloomingdale, IL (NW suburban Chicago) called Mr. Beef. It's gone now, though there is another place in Chicago with the same name. I'm not sure if it's a new manifestation of the original business or not. But at the original Mr. Beef, I watched our day cook, Mrs. Keller, prepare pounds and pounds of Italian Beef every week. It was exceedingly simple! I believe they used beef brisket. A dry rub was mixed, consisting of salt, pepper, onion powder, chopped fresh garlic, basil and oregano, which was very liberally applied to the roasts. I'm not sure of the quantities, as Mrs. Keller would mix enough to do about 30 briskets at a time. But anyway, once the briskets were rubbed, they would be placed in shallow roasting pans with an inch or so of water in the bottom, and were then slow roasted at 325 until the meat registered medium rare on a meat thermometer (several hours). When the meat was done, the roasts were removed to large trays to cool. The pan drippings were cooled as well. When everything had reached room temperature, the roasts were placed in the refrigerator to chill overnight. The pan drippings were strained and chilled overnight as well. Once the roasts were chilled hard and solid, they could be trimmed of excess fat and sliced easily into paper thin slices. A meat slicer is essential! The chilled pan drippings were used to make the jus. The fat separates out and solidifies on the surface. This was discarded. The remaining pan drippings were diluted by 50% with water and brought to a boil on the stove, and were then poured into large pans of the sliced beef. The hot juices proceeded to 'cook' the meat further as they sat in the steam table for serving. As for the bread, Mr. Beef's owner also owned a bakery directly across the parking lot (The Yamo Italian Bakery) which provided long, freshly baked baguettes for the restaurant every day. These were sliced into 6 inch rolls for sandwiches. People would drive for miles to eat the beef sandwiches at Mr. Beef. Delicious!! The bonus - every night you worked, you could take home a fresh loaf of bread from the bakery, often right out of the oven. My mother would wait up for me, and I'd find her sitting at the kitchen table with a knife and the butter dish. Often, we'd sit and eat the whole loaf before we went to bed! Anyway, that's what I remember about how the Italian Beef was made at Mr. Beef. Forget driving for miles, I'd invent a time machine and go back for this, it sounds so good! Thanks for sharing! ~ MaryJane

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