Eastside Road, January 25, 2010—
WIKIPEDIA WOULD HAVE made my world entirely different when I was a child. Instead of idly wondering why Mom called it "Swiss steak," and wondering what it might have to do with the only thing I really knew about Switzerland — namely, The Swiss Family Robinson — I would simply have done what I did just now and looked it up online.Who'd have known:
The name does not refer to Switzerland, but instead to the process of "swissing", which refers to fabric or other materials being pounded or run through rollers in order to soften it.I don't recall Mom ever running our beef through rollers, though I did hear her slam the tenderizing hammer on it from time to time. To me, Swiss steak is beef that's been tenderized somehow, then slow-braised, usually in some kind of tomato sauce.
That's exactly what Lindsey did tonight, and it was as good as ever. Little old potatoes, too, boiled tender, so you can mash them down in the juice with your fork. As a first course, a red-cabbage slaw with grated carrot, chopped onion, a little chopped cilantro, some red pepper flakes, lime juice and salt. Afterward, the usual green salad.
Sauvignon blanc, Viñas Chilenas, 2009; Tempranillo, La Granja 360, 2007
5 comments:
Is Swiss Steak the "cube steak" of my childhood?
God how I hated that stuff. Tough, stringy, and pliable as rubber. Best ground up for burger meat.
John McPhee in his "Brigade de Cuisine" once reported how his favorite chef--someone who ran a little inn restaurant in the outback of New Jersey--chopped his hamburger from sirloin--which I suspect may not have been correct, since hamburger made from lean meat usually is too dry and flavorless.
Is Swiss Steak the "cube steak" of my childhood?
God how I hated that stuff. Tough, stringy, and pliable as rubber. Best ground up for burger meat.
John McPhee in his "Brigade de Cuisine" once reported how his favorite chef--someone who ran a little inn restaurant in the outback of New Jersey--chopped his hamburger from sirloin--which I suspect may not have been correct, since hamburger made from lean meat usually is too dry and flavorless.
I can't speak to cube steak. I know it exists, or existed; but it's never been on my table, for one reason or another. Swiss steak, to me, has always implied a sort of faux-filet, a slice of beef, no bone, that's been "tenderized" with some kind of mechanical technique: pounded with a cross-grooved steel mallet, or scored by being repeatedly struck with the back of a heavy knife.
It has nothing to do with hamburger ("mince" to the Brits, haché to the French). I think you can make a decent hamburger from lean meat, but only by adding some kind of fat to it — wrapping it in bacon, for example.
That takes me back to my childhood, Charles, thanks!
Yeah, putting a binder in it.
I used to enjoy a "veggie burger" served in a little corner deli on Sutter and Franklin (which no longer exists). It actually had a flavor rather "meat-like" but better.
I remember now. Swiss Steaks were sometimes served in the dormitories where I lived for a year while attending Berkeley. Rather the size of chops, but without the bone. Pretty good.
Thank your stars you never had to eat cube steaks as a kid. These were on the round-robin of meals we ate every month, like liver and onions and frozen fish-sticks. I think the idea was that kids were supposed to learn tolerance and diligence by eating food that wasn't very good--or was this simply an excuse to avoid facing the fact that we couldn't afford anything better? Probably.
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