A Year of Cooking Genealogically, Round Steak with Onions

And we're back at it, this time with our original cookbook author, Kate (as determined by her distinctive handwriting).  This recipe seemed fairly straightforward and I felt it was time to plunge into an entree.

Ingredients
3 lbs. round steak
6 onions, sliced thing
1 tbs dripping*
1 " flour
2 " vinegar
3 springs parsley** & a bay leaf
1 pint boiling water - salt and pepper

Directions
Beat steak with a potato masher*** - Put dripping in a deep fy pan and when hot, add onions.  Put in steak dredged with flour, salt and pepper.  Cover closely, simmer on a hot fire for a minute, then turn steak.  Add other seasonings, lower fire and simmer gently for two hours. Very good and very cheap.

*I used bacon fat drippings
**No fresh parsley, but I did have tarragon and used that instead.
***haven't had a potato masher in years.  I used a meat mallet instead.  While it might have felt I was solving world problems whacking that steak, I mostly got a good workout.

I ended up with top round steak.  Other than the shape, what exactly is round steak?  Wikipedia tells us that "a round steak is a beef steak from the "round"(duh), the rear leg of the cow. The round is divided into cuts including the eye (of) round, bottom round, and top round, with or without the "round" bone (femur), and may include the knuckle (sirloin tip), depending on how the round is separated from the loin. This is a lean cut and it is moderately tough. Round steak is commonly prepared with slow moist-heat methods including braising, to tenderize the meat and maintain moisture."  [Side note: For all you baby boomers like me, 'cube steak' from our childhood is pre-tenderized round steak.]  So far it looks like Kate is spot on her cooking method with this cut of meat.  But as to the 'very cheap' comment, well, Kate, beef might have been cheap in your day but at today's prices, 3 pounds of round steak runs close to 20 bucks. I'm reluctant to just waste that kind of money for a blog that maybe 5 people are reading, so I went slightly against my own rules and used homemade beef stock instead of boiling water to create the roux. Before I added the beef stock, I sweated (sweat? any grammar experts out there?) the onions in bacon grease (honestly, Pam Spray has nothing on bacon grease in the flavor department), plopped the beaten, seasoned and dredged steak on top of the onions, tossed in the tarragon and bay leaf, poured in the stock, on went the lid, and the timer was set for two hours.  Pretty easy, minimal prep, but truly, all I could think was how much faster this recipe would be done in my instant pot.

After a day spent watching the world's perfect grandson, with whom I took turns whacking the steak, I invited favorite daughter and SIL to dinner.  I did tell them they'd be guinea pigs for this recipe - but I didn't tell them what the recipe actually was in the invite (bwahaha).  It only took five minutes after picky eater favorite daughter hit the door to ask what I was cooking.  And surprise, surprise! It turns out round steak with onions is rather tasty, and she actually ate it (I owe you one, SIL - marriage has been good for her pickiness).  For my palate, the recipe definitely needs more seasoning - garlic, perhaps.  The final product reminds me of Swiss Steak, but the addition of vinegar was the real wild card, and added a nice zingy-ness. The finished dish was fork tender and made into sandwiches on crusty french bread.  You can't beat that.

So, verdict?  Everyone thought it was good except the perfect grandchild who refused to eat anything.  I would make it again but probably in the instant pot, and I would definitely amp up the seasoning.

Next week?  Back to baking...Dun Dun Dun!

A Year of Cooking Genealogically, Beet Relish

Hello again!  After back to back trips to Florida and California, with Cincinnati Beerfest squeezed in between, I'm back at it sporting the head cold from hell, courtesy of all those planes, trains, and automobiles.  It's the usual Cincinnati weather, gray skies, gray clouds, with a dash of gray to color it all, so what better time to tackle another recipe, while listening to the hammering of our new siding going up?  Side note: with my failing hearing and the added hurdle of a head cold, I'm constantly thinking someone is knocking at the door, so I'm trying to ignore it.  If you're really here and I don't answer, sorry, just keep pounding.

On to the next recipe, beet relish.  I personally love beets, pickled beets in particular.  My mother made her own pickled beets and would add peeled hard boiled eggs to the pickling juice.  The eggs would turn a beautiful purple color and were great additions to a salad.  But I digress.  I've eaten a lot of relishes, but I can say that I never had this version.  

Ingredients

1 qt cooked beets, chopped fine

1 qt raw cabbage, "

1 scant cup horseradish chopped or ground

1 tsp black pepper

1 sweet green pepper, chopped

2 or 3 heads of celery*

1 heaping tblsp salt

2 cups white vinegar

Directions

Cover with cold cider vinegar

And that's it.  Pretty simple, right? I made a couple of executive decisions.  I used canned beets, 3 drained cans worth, and green cabbage, as the heads were smaller at Kroger - the red would be prettier, but the heads were gargantuan.  I was a little stumped by three heads of celery, I mean 3 heads of celery is a damned lot of celery - so I made the executive decision to use just 3 stalks.  Finally, it calls for white vinegar but then mentions cider vinegar.  I used white because it was what I had on hand.  Lastly, about all that chopping...yeah.  I debated the authenticity angle and then thought, screw it, and pulled out my food processor.  I used the shredder attachment for everything except the celery, for which I used the slicer.  I did chop the pepper by hand.  And that was quite enough, thank you.  

So, this is the finished product.  It is quite tart, a bit salty, somewhat inexpensive for the large quantity made, and something of a question mark. What exactly do you do with this quantity of relish except perhaps as an offering at a picnic, especially when DH reminds you that he doesn't like beets ?  And is it my imagination or does the handwriting look different for this recipe than the others?  More on that in a minute.  As to the relish, I was initially torn.  I'm reluctant to pitch the whole thing, but the "balance" of the recipe doesn't taste right.  On scouring the Google, I have found similar archival recipes, and they almost all call for a certain amount of sweetness (such as sugar). Considering the recipe in it's current state was practically inedible, hot and vinegary, I added a cup and 1/2 of sugar, and let it sit for a day.  I then remembered that while DH doesn't like beets, SIL LOVES them. He pronounced it delicious, one of the best he'd had - and being Polish by birth, he's had a lot of beet relishes.  He took the entire bowl, ostensibly to share with his brother - but I doubt it will last that long.  Talk about your fiber!

I'm guessing that if you're a canner, this would be a great recipe to hot pack - heat the vinegar, pepper and sugar, pour over the veggies and pack into sterilized jars, much like a sauerkraut.  The Big Blue Book of Ball canning does have a beet relish recipe, but it calls for cooking and processing, which would degrade the freshness of the veggies, I think.  Would I make this again?  Depends on how much the SIL begs for it - but considering he's pretty handy in the kitchen, I'm thinking he can manage it himself.

Verdict: Interesting, but needed additions to make it palatable.  For me, I don't think this will be a repeat recipe.  

As to the handwriting, I realized that this belongs to my Uncle Ray Cunningham.  I believe that he and possibly his mother Ruth added their own favorite recipes to the book.  I'll do a bit of research and see if I can attribute specific recipes to their respective writers.  Stay tuned...

Next week - an entree!  Some of these are real doozys...stay tuned!