To Fry Steak
Hunt up all the pickle and take from each one teacup vinegar, lay the steak in a deep dish, pour over the vinegar and let it stand one hour. Take a clean frying-pan, throw in one ounce butter, and some of the vinegar from the dish, sufficient to stew the steak. If managed properly, when done it will be imbedded in a thick gravy. Put the steak in a hot dish, before the fire; into the pan, put one spoonful black pepper, one or two of catsup, and one of raw mustard.--Mrs. S.
Fried Steak.
Get from the butcher a tenderloin or porter-house steak. Do not wash it, but be careful to lay it on a clean block and beat it well, but not into holes, nor so as to look ragged. Sprinkle over pepper and salt, then dredge with flour on both sides.
Have ready a hot frying-pan, lay in the steak and cover closely. The juice of the meat will be sufficient to cook it. Turn often, as the pan must be hot enough to scorch and make the steak and gravy brown. Before it gets hard or overdone, butter liberally; place in a hot dish. Pepper again, and, if preferred, pour over first one tablespoonful pepper vinegar, then one tablespoonful made mustard, and turn in over all the hot gravy. Sift powered cracker over and serve.--Mrs. S.T.
Two methods from the same book, run together: the first braises steak in pickle vinegar, the second is a dry-pan fry finished with butter. Both assume a heavy iron pan and a cook standing over it.
- "Hunt up all the pickle"This means going round the pantry crocks and jars and drawing off a teacup of vinegar from each — cucumber, peach, walnut, whatever is in the house. The total depends on how many jars are standing; a cup or two of mixed pickle brine will do. The point is the accumulated spice, not the acid alone.
- A teacupA nineteenth-century teacup is smaller than a modern measuring cup; it is usually reckoned at about 3/4 cup or 6 fl oz, though the book does not define it. The recipe is not precise enough for that to matter much.
- Raw mustard and made mustard"Raw mustard" is dry mustard powder, stirred straight into the pan. "Made mustard" is the prepared paste. The two are not interchangeable by volume — a spoonful of powder is far sharper than a spoonful of the jar.
- CatsupIn 1878 Virginia, catsup as often meant walnut, mushroom or tomato, generally thinner, saltier and more sharply spiced than the modern bottle. Modern tomato ketchup is much sweeter; Worcestershire or a mushroom ketchup gives a truer result.
- The dry panThe second method's hinge is that nothing goes in the pan but the floured steak — no fat at all until the finish. The flour and meat juices form the brown gravy against the iron. A film of oil defeats it, and a nonstick pan will not build the fond.
- Covered, then turned oftenCovering closely traps the steam so the meat's own juice does the cooking, but it works against browning. Expect to lift the lid for the last minutes and let the pan scorch as the instruction asks.
- "Before the fire"The dish is warmed at the hearth so the steak can sit while the gravy is finished in the pan. Any low warming spot will serve, and resting the meat this way is exactly right by modern practice.
- Powdered crackerFinely crushed plain soda or water crackers, sifted over as a garnish and light thickener. Unsalted cracker crumbs are the nearest thing; the steak is already seasoned twice.
- YieldA porterhouse or tenderloin cut for a table of the period would have served three or four, though the recipe gives no quantity. The first method, being a stew in vinegar, suits a thicker cut than the second.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, was assembled from contributions by named Virginia housewives, which is why these two steaks sit side by side signed "Mrs. S." and "Mrs. S.T." rather than being reconciled into one method — the book preserves disagreement as a matter of course. The first recipe belongs to an older habit of thrift and flavour both: pickle liquor was too useful to throw out, and its spiced vinegar tenderised and sauced a cut that might not have been the best in the house. The second reflects the Southern faith in the iron skillet, cooking meat in nothing but its own juice against hot metal, and finishes with the pepper vinegar said to have stood on many a Virginia table. Both close with mustard and a dark catsup, condiments then understood as savoury rather than sweet.