The Grill-Meister owned a German deli here in our little suburb of Houston for a while, years before we met. The relics of that adventure are “I would never want to own a restaurant again” and this marvelous sandwich, the U-Boat. It’s a German-ish variation of an Italian sub sandwich.
The U-Boat is party food. Big bites for people with big appetites. Perfect for big games or big parties or just a bunch of hungry teenagers.
I convinced the Grill-Meister to revisit the U-Boat recently for a Super Bowl party we were attending, and documented his every move as he made it. Here is the recipe, just for you.
The U-Boat Sub
Ingredients (serves 4 as a main course, 8-12 as an appetizer)
- Large loaf of soft Italian or French bread (not a baguette), sliced in half longways
- 7 oz. thinly sliced Black Forest ham
- 5 oz. thinly sliced garlic (German) bologna
- 2 oz. thinly sliced hard salami
- 6-8 slices each of provolone, American and Swiss cheese
- 2 large, ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 head of iceberg lettuce, shredded or sliced in ribbons
- Your favorite Italian dressing, about 1/4 cup or enough to spread across the top of the French bread
- Freshly ground pepper
- Large wooden picks (optional)
Cooking Instructions
Gather all ingredients and place the bread on a cutting board. Starting with the ham, add a layer of meat, then alternate with a layer of cheese, overlapping the slices in each layer. Then scatter a layer of red onions, followed by the tomatoes. Add a liberal amount of freshly ground pepper, then the lettuce. Sprinkle a generous amount of the Italian dressing on the second half of the bread, then position it atop the sandwich. If you’re serving the U-Boat as an appetizer, use the picks to secure it in sections, about 1 1/2 inches apart. If it is a main course, cut the U-Boat in quarters.
Origins
Where did the name U-Boat come from? The Original Italian U-Boat was a successful submarine sandwich restaurant in Chicago that swelled from a single location in 1975 to 32 stores in its heyday, only to file for bankruptcy and close during the recession in 1983. Chicagoans remember it fondly, according to this article. There isn’t a recipe for their U-Boat Sub online, although it may exist in someone’s attic. The Grill-Meister’s U-Boat is similar to recipes for an Italian Sub, although it has a German spin with the Black Forest ham and garlic bologna.
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
Reblogged this on Glover Gardens and commented:
Even non-football fans (like me) get into having the right food for the big game, so I’m reblogging a few game-day worthy recipes from the Glover Gardens cookbook section. I can highly recommend the Grill-Meister’s U-Boat Sub sandwich.