National Cheesesteak Day falls on March 24th, but as far as the marketing department of the USA’s best-selling frozen sliced steak brand is concerned, dedicating just one day is not enough to commemorate the popular sandwich. As such, the Reading, Pennsylvania-headquartered producer is celebrating National Cheesesteak Day for most of the month with a 24 Days of Steak-umm Sweepstakes.
Fans of the product (also known as beeflings) sold in supermarkets throughout America that is used for making homemade Philadelphia-style cheesesteaks, are invited to enter for a chance to win T-shirts and bed sheets, a year’s worth of product, and a grand prize of $5,000.
Steak-umm is a thinly sliced sandwich steak that was created by Gene Gagliardi in 1968 as an easily chewable alternative to conventional steak cuts. The product became popular in the 1970’s and 80’s as a quick, easy-to-make convenience food item at home.
Ownership of the company changed hands several times over the decades before it was acquired by Quaker Maid Meats, a family-owned company.
According the Wikipedia, founder Gagliardi created Steak-umm “after putting beef through a grinder multiple times, mixing and molding it, freezing it, softening it, then ultimately slicing it.” Industrial output of the product originated at a meat processing plant in West Chester, Pennsylvania.”
Today the product is available in a chicken breast format as well as beef varieties in the freezer sections of supermarkets and other retail store throughout the United States and elsewhere.
