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Swiss Steak
1 pound steak, 1 cup flour, salt and pepper, 4 skinned tomatoes, 1 sliced onion, and water. Have steak cut 2 inches thick, and pound into it the flour. Put steak into a skillet, with 3 tablespoons Crisco and brown on both sides. Then cover with water, adding sliced onion, tomatoes sliced and cover closely and let simmer for 3 hours. Just before steak is done add salt and pepper to taste. When done, the gravy is already made and is delicious.
A plain braise that depends almost entirely on time and a tight lid. Two details in the original are worth reading carefully: the thickness of the cut and the flour that gets driven into it.
- The cutUse beef round — top or bottom round is the traditional choice, and chuck works as well. A supermarket will rarely cut round two inches thick without being asked, so order it, or buy a thick piece and portion it yourself.
- Pounding is the pointThe flour is not a coating; it is worked into the meat with a mallet or the rim of a heavy saucer until the surface is ragged and the fibres are broken. That mechanical tenderising is what makes a tough cut worth three hours, and skipping it leaves you with a floured steak that stays chewy.
- A cup of flourFar more than will ever adhere. Season the cup of flour with salt and pepper, pound in what the meat takes, and discard the rest — or hold a spoonful back to thicken the gravy at the end if it is thin.
- CriscoA hydrogenated vegetable shortening introduced in 1911, and the reason this book exists. Any neutral oil, lard or beef dripping does the same job in the same quantity.
- Skinned tomatoesScore the bases, drop into boiling water for 30 seconds and slip the skins off. Out of season, one 14.5-oz can of whole or diced tomatoes with its juice stands in for the four fresh ones.
- Water and the lidThe original says to cover with water; using rather less, so the liquid comes most of the way up the meat, gives a more concentrated gravy. A close-fitting lid and the barest simmer, a bubble or two a second, are what produce the gravy; a hard boil will reduce the liquid away and toughen the meat.
- Three hoursCorrect for a two-inch piece of round at a true simmer. Start checking at two hours: the steak is done when a fork twists in it without resistance. A 325F oven, covered, is steadier than a burner if your stove runs hot.
- Salting lateThe original adds salt and pepper just before the steak is done. Seasoning the liquid earlier does no harm and gives a better-tasting gravy, but taste before you add, since the braise concentrates as it goes.
- YieldOne pound of steak with gravy serves three, or two generously. Mashed potato or boiled noodles are the usual partners for the sauce.
The name has nothing to do with Switzerland. It is generally traced to "swissing," an old term for passing cloth between rollers to soften and flatten it — the same idea applied to a tough piece of beef beaten thin with flour. The dish belongs to the American braising tradition that made round steak edible without a long hanging or an expensive cut, and it spread through community cookbooks and manufacturers' pamphlets in the early twentieth century. This version comes from a book built around Crisco, the hydrogenated shortening put on the market in 1911; its recipes were written to show the new fat doing everything lard and butter had done, browning included.