Pull-apart beef as delicious as it is ugly

Many people who grew up outside the South think that all Southern food is the same. But this is far from the truth. You can live one county away and your food experience and your definition of Southern food is completely different from mine.

Sheri Castle is my favorite Southern cook of that nature. I have known Sheri for many years. She is a fellow North Carolinian. She is a generous person and cook with a wry sense of humor and an extensive food knowledge of her Southern foodways. And those food traditions differ in many respects from my Southern food experience.

One day, we are going to get together and cook our respective Souths — for me, North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad; for her, the mountains.

Sheri introduced me to chocolate gravy. I thought that it was a joke, but it is a very real thing, and she is famous for popularizing it outside of Appalachia.

She was also the first to introduce me to Pickled Pepper Pull-Apart Beef. I have to admit that once again, I had never heard of it until I was leafing through her new cookbook, titled “Instantly Southern.” It is a book of Southern recipes adapted to today’s newfound love of multipots and pressure cookers.

What appealed to me about this recipe — besides the fact that I had never heard of it before ­—is that it is super simple and uses a pressure cooker to its best advantage. It’s essentially a beef chuck roast pressure cooked and flavored by the brine of pickled peppers.

Sheri told me that “it’s the kind of recipe that you tell to your sisters and your neighbors and then everyone gives it their own little tweak!”

My tweak was to add beef broth to the pickle brine and use both mild banana pepper rings and spicier pepperoncini. And in the end, I opted to make mine into a hot “hoagie” with Muenster cheese and lots of crunchy pickled peppers.

This is one “ugly delicious” sandwich! If you like an Italian beef sandwich, you will love this one made heartier with chunks of tender chuck. If you like to dip your bread, serve extra jus on the side. It is a perfect fall option when you’ve had your fill of chili and chicken wings.

Pickled Pepper Pull-Apart Beef

This sandwich is adapted from Sheri Castle’s cookbook “Instantly Southern” (Penguin Random House, $16.99). It is perfect for Halloween celebrations and pairs beautifully with hot apple cider or your favorite witches brew.

PICKLED PEPPER PULL-APART BEEF

By Elizabeth Karmel

• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
• 3-4 pound chuck roast
• 1 (1-ounce) package of ranch dressing/seasoning mix
• 1 cup pickled banana pepper rings, divided
• 6-8 pepperoncini
• 1/2 cup brine from peppers
• 1 cup beef broth
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 6-12 slices Muenster cheese, at room temperature
• 6 hoagie rolls, halved
• Condiments, including more pepper rings, as desired

Place butter pieces evenly in bottom of pressure cooker pot. Add chuck roast. Sprinkle with ranch seasoning. Scatter peppers over roast. Add brine and beef broth.

Cover and cook on high pressure for 50 minutes. Let pressure release naturally, about another 20 minutes.

Uncover and let rest 15 minutes. Spoon fat off top. Break roast into chunks. (Or, let pot come to room temperature, cover with foil and refrigerate. The next day, remove the fat disc from the top and reheat.)

When ready to serve, place cheese on rolls. Add chunks of steaming hot meat. Top with uncooked pepper rings and other condiments as desired. Drizzle beef with juices from pot, serving extra jus on the side if desired. Serves 6.

>> NOTE: Cheese may be melted by placing slices on the buns, then heat open-faced in a toaster oven or regular oven. Add the hot beef and peppers on top of melted cheese.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving: 687 calories, 23 g total fat, 11 g saturated fat, 160 mg cholesterol, 1,780 mg sodium, 39 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 3 g sugar, 56 g protein.