Roast beef po' boys are commonly offered with "debris" (pronounced IPA: ), which is bits of meat that fall during cooking and are rendered into a near-gravy. In a New Orleans "sloppy roast beef" po' boy, thick cuts are served with gravy, or for the "CrockPot tender" type the beef is stewed down until melded with its sauce, while in a third style, thinner slices are dipped in beef jus. The fried oyster po'boys are also referred the distinct name "oyster loaf", and apparently have a different and older history. Non-seafood po' boys will also often have Creole mustard.Īside from meat and seafood, cheese has also been a recognized ingredient since the Great Depression, the sandwich's inception occurring at the beginning of that period (year 1929). Fried seafood po' boys are often dressed by default with melted butter and sliced pickle rounds. Ī "dressed" po' boy has lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayonnaise. The recipe was developed in the 1700s in the Gulf South because the humid climate was not conducive to growing wheat, requiring wheat flour to be imported and thus less available. "Po' boy bread" is a local style of French bread traditionally made with less flour and more water than a traditional baguette, yielding a wetter dough that produces a lighter and fluffier bread. A wide selection of fillings are traditional as long as the "po' boy bread" is used, with roast beef, baked ham, fried shrimp, fried crawfish, fried catfish, Louisiana hot sausage, French fries, fried chicken, alligator, duck, boudin, and rabbit listed among possible ingredients.