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!