Swiss Steak
Select a slice of round steak, cut about two inches thick. A steak from the top of the round is preferable. For a small family, half of the slice will suffice for two meals. A full slice from heavy beef will weigh four or five pounds. Pound into the steak, on both sides, as much flour as it will take up (nearly one cup).
Brown the meat on both sides in bacon or salt-pork fat. Peel an onion for each person to be served; cook five minutes with one No. 2 can of tomatoes, pour over the meat and bake about 2 hours at a temperature of 350° F.
The method is sound and the temperature is already given in Fahrenheit, so this is one of the easier old recipes to follow. Two points need translating: the can size and the thickness of the cut.
- A No. 2 canThat is the old commercial size holding about 2½ cups, roughly 20 fluid ounces. A standard 14.5-oz can of tomatoes plus a splash of water or stock is close enough; a 28-oz can is generous but works if the pan is large.
- The cutA two-inch slice off the top round is no longer standard butcher's practice — most round steak is sold under an inch. Ask for a thick single slice, or use a piece of top or bottom round roast cut across into a slab. Thin supermarket "cube steak" will fall apart in two hours.
- Pounding in the flourThis is the hinge of the dish, not a garnish. Work the flour in with the edge of a heavy plate or a meat mallet until the surface stops taking any more. It both tenderises the round and thickens the tomato into a gravy as it bakes.
- Nearly one cup of flourThat figure is for a four- to five-pound slice. Scale down proportionally; for a 1½-lb steak expect to work in about ⅓ cup. The original gives no seasoning instruction at all, so salt and pepper the flour to taste.
- Bacon or salt-pork fatRendered bacon fat gives the intended flavour. Any high-smoke-point fat browns the meat, but the cured pork note is part of the dish. Get a real crust on both sides — the floured surface scorches quickly, so keep the heat at medium-high rather than full.
- Cover the panThe recipe does not say so, but two hours uncovered will dry the sauce to paste. Bake covered in a Dutch oven or a dish with foil, checking once at the hour mark and adding water if it has tightened too far.
- The onionsOne peeled onion per person, cooked five minutes in the tomato, suggests whole or halved onions that braise down alongside the meat and are served with it, though the recipe does not say how they are cut. Slicing them instead gives a more familiar smothered-steak gravy.
- YieldA full slice of four to five pounds serves eight to ten. The book's suggestion of half a slice for two meals for a small family reflects a period habit of cooking a large piece and reheating the remainder in its gravy, which suits this dish well.
Swiss steak has nothing to do with Switzerland; the name is generally traced to "swissing," an old English term for rolling or pounding cloth flat, said to have been applied by extension to meat beaten thin between the flour, though the derivation is traditional rather than documented. The technique is the standard answer to the round — from the hind leg that is cheap and tough, and that only becomes tender with long moist heat. Recipes of this kind proliferated in American cookery from the early twentieth century onward, and this version belongs squarely to the canned-goods era: the No. 2 can of tomatoes is treated as a pantry staple, as reliable a unit of measure as a cup of flour.</p>