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Smothered Steak, Fresh Ham, Pork Chops Or Veal Chops
Purchase two and a half pounds of round steak, sliced thin, of fresh ham, sliced thin, of pork chops, or veal chops. Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, dust it plentifully with salt and pepper, and roll it in flour. Melt three tablespoonfuls of Snowdrift in an aluminum or heavy iron kettle, and quickly brown the meat in it. (If the fresh ham, or steak, is being used, it should be cut in pieces suitable for serving.) Then add twelve medium-sized onions, sliced, and barely cover the meat with boiling water. Put on the lid and let the meat simmer two hours for the fresh ham or the steak, and an hour for the pork chops or veal chops. Serve with mashed potatoes or boiled rice.
A plain braise built on flour-dusted meat and a great many onions. The only substantive translation needed is the fat and the pan.
- SnowdriftA cottonseed-oil shortening, originally from the Southern Cotton Oil Company and later sold under the Wesson Oil & Snowdrift name. Any neutral solid shortening, lard or a few tablespoons of vegetable oil does the same work; the recipe uses it only for browning.
- The kettle"An aluminum or heavy iron kettle" means a lidded stovetop pot; a Dutch oven is the closest modern equivalent. The instruction is really about thick walls and a tight lid, since the dish simmers two hours under cover.
- Twelve onions is not a typoRoughly 3 to 4 lb of sliced onions to 2 1/2 lb of meat. They collapse into the liquid and become the sauce; there is no thickener here beyond the flour on the meat and the onion pulp itself. Reducing them substantially will leave you with thin, watery gravy.
- Brown properly, in batchesThe floured meat needs a hot pan and space. Crowding 2 1/2 lb into one layer steams it grey, and since nothing else in the recipe contributes colour or depth, the browning is the whole flavour base.
- Barely coverTake this literally. Water level should come just to the top of the meat; more liquid and the two hours produce boiled beef in broth rather than a glazed braise.
- TimingsTwo hours suits round steak and sliced fresh ham (uncured pork leg). One hour is generous for modern pork chops, which are bred far leaner than 1920s pork — thin loin chops will be dry well before that, so use thick shoulder or blade chops if you want the full hour. Veal chops likewise: check at 40 minutes.
- Fresh hamNot cured ham. It means the raw hind leg of pork, which a butcher will slice or cube for you; boneless pork shoulder is the easiest stand-in and braises better.
- YieldNo yield is given; 2 1/2 lb of meat would plausibly serve five or six with mashed potatoes or rice.
This is a promotional cookbook: Snowdrift was a hydrogenated cottonseed-oil shortening, and the New Snowdrift Cook Book existed to persuade cooks that it could stand in for lard and butter across the whole repertoire — hence the appearance of an ordinary Southern smothered steak, a dish that would traditionally have been browned in lard or bacon drippings. "Smothered" is old American kitchen usage for meat cooked under a lid with onions and a little liquid until a thick gravy forms, and it belongs to the same family as smothered chicken and smothered pork chops long established in Southern and Creole cooking. The recipe carries a four-in-one heading — steak, fresh ham, pork chops or veal chops — and closes with a note serving it with mashed potatoes or boiled rice.