Man Food

Esquire Magazine: it is smart, funny, sarcastic, and classy. The magazine’s “people-who-read-this-magazine-are-smarter-or-at-least-definitely-better-overall-than-anyone-else” tone is what sets it apart from other magazines for men; GQ is too cliché and Maxim is too slimy. Esquire readers enjoy intelligent articles about anything from serious social and political issues to what the next electronic gadgets will be or tips on how to make a pie by Mary Louise Parker. While they can still certainly be scandalous, I have to admit their articles on women always incorporate some kind of interesting angle. All this talk about class makes the following excerpt (which will serve as this posting's recipe) from the latest issue seem out of place:

When I'm at the stoves, I rarely have time to eat a plate of food from start to finish, so lately I've commissioned my girlfriend to make me this sandwich every few days, and I just eat sections of it when I need to: Take a large, airy baguette with a thin crust, cut off the ends, and carve out as much of the insides as you can using a long, skinny knife or the handle of a wooden spoon. Then take whatever you like from the deli counter — prosciutto, ham, salami, some provolone, marinated vegetables — and jam everything in there with the spoon handle. Fire the whole thing in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees and slice it up. —Dennis Leary, The Sentinel, San Francisco

Really? Hollow out a baguette, and use the end of a large stick to shove meat and cheese and who knows what else deep down into it? This sounds barbaric, messy, crude, manly, and well, delicious. Best of all, Esquire calls this concoction "Meat Bread". When I described the process to my male coworkers I was met with wide eyes and smiles. One of them compared the technique to packing a musket which I think is fairly accurate. While this technique would never be considered the height of class, it works. I can testify to that through the art of photography.



I like to imagine the possibilities of what can be packed into the hollowed baguette, but I think your fantasy meat bread recipe will depend on your personal preference.



I am sure I will be making this again, but this time I used ground beef, colby jack cheese, and homemade tomato sauce. Why?...because that is what I had. It tasted like a meatball sub. Here it is, all stuffed and ready for toasting:



For a successful loaf of meat bread, make sure to stuff the hollowed out baguette to the limit without breaking the crust open (as seen in the first picture). Do it.