The Easy Way To Achieve Tender, Restaurant-Style Sandwich Meats

We all know there are some foods that are better when they're made at a restaurant. Sandwiches rank high on that list for a number of reasons. The bread might be fresher at a café, or they might take more care making tasty combinations of spreads, veggies, and other ingredients that you don't have the time or space to produce. But a big factor is the care and technique that goes into roasting sandwich meat in-house at a quality sandwich provider.

If you've ever made a Thanksgiving turkey, you know you can't just throw a turkey into the oven and hope for moist, well-seasoned meat that will slice deli thin. The same goes for roast beef and ham. Those large roasts need to be brined and seasoned to perfection and then roasted at a low temperature for just the right amount of time to produce tender sliced sandwich meat. With just a few simple hacks, you can improve your home sandwich game and serve meat that's perfectly seasoned and tender with each bite, just like your favorite sandwich spot.

The first step is choosing your seasoning, whether it's a wet or dry brine – larger cuts of meat roasted at lower temperatures for slicing don't get the flavor benefit of browning and searing that pot roasts do, so don't skip that important step. Next, keep the oven temperature low — 325 degrees Fahrenheit is a good target. Low-temperature cooking allows the middle of the meat to come to temperature before the outside is overcooked and dry. And longer cooking time also gives time for collagen to change from tough and chewy to meltingly smooth and tender. You might have noticed how this works with notoriously tough brisket — when it's brined, slow-roasted, and sliced, like magic, it becomes juicy pastrami or corned beef that's easy to bite despite the original texture of the meat.

A last trick that will keep your sandwich meat tender (and all other roasts and steaks, too) is learning to cut or slice against the grain of the meat. If you cut your perfectly roasted meat in the same direction as the meat fibers, you'll get stringy meat, no matter how thinly you slice it. Just look for the faint lines in the meat and slice across those lines. Your teeth will thank you with every tender bite.