Cooking from the Books: Good Eats: Volume 2: Swiss Steak

Alton Brown makes my short list of food personalities that I admire. After all, the man convinced me that brining is a necessity for the Thanksgiving Turkey, and I have a permanent Post-It on that page in I'm Just Here for the Food. But I have to confess that although I have all his cookbooks (including the newest, Good Eats: Volume 3), I have not cooked around in them very much. Maybe it's because I consider him a sort of foodie older brother. Need to know why high-gluten flour works better for homemade pizza dough? Check Alton. The answer will be there in one of those volumes--probably accompanied by a cute diagram of gluten molecules. Alton has all the answers.

My husband and I recently had the pleasure of hearing Alton speak in person at a benefit for the Cedar Rapids Public Library. A flood two years ago laid waste to the main branch of the library, and soaked many of its volumes. Alton came to speak at a fund-raising benefit, and donated a number of books to help rebuild the Library's collection, including some rare and odd cookbooks, and all of the ones he has authored. He was just as charming and funny in person as he appears in all of his television venues.

The Cooking Channel is rerunning all of the Good Eats episodes, and there are many that I have never seen. I was intrigued by the episode about Swiss Steak and how it belongs in the Museum of Food Horrors. I was born in Atlanta, but spent most of my formative years in Phoenix. I learned how to cook South, and Southwest. Swiss Steak was not on either of those menus. Then when I moved to Iowa to go to graduate school, I entered a new food arena and learned that many people in the Midwest ate breakfast, dinner, and supper (instead of breakfast lunch, and dinner), often consuming "hotdish" at some of those meals (instead of "casserole"), and drank pop instead of soda. And suddenly I was dining in restaurants that had pork tenderloin sandwiches instead of tamales, and Swiss Steak instead of fried chicken, biscuits, and gravy.

I ate Swiss Steak once in a well-known restaurant because my husband likes it, and recommended it to me. It tasted like the sole of an old shoe floured, fried, and swathed in white gummy gravy. Nasty! It quickly joined the list of things I never order in a restaurant like beef stew (no one ever makes it as well as I do) or tuna sandwiches (they should not be half dark tuna, half mayo and onion).

So I was intrigued by Alton's tear down and reconstruction of this midwest favorite. The rules emerged: you should buy your own good quality meat, slice and tenderize it yourself, and after flouring and searing the steaks, cook them low and slow in a broth in a Dutch oven. Alton set the bar pretty high, but I don't have time to buy, slice, and tenderize my own meat. Plus I shop at a small-town grocery that has a beautifully run meat department. In their meat case, I found lean, high-end,
tenderized "cube" steaks. I bought four.

Then I floured them lightly in seasoned flour. I am big fan these days of Mrs. Dash's Table Blend--no salt (and I don't miss it), but lots of pepper and other spices with a nice zing. Then I browned them in olive oil, and layered them in my Dutch oven. I strayed outside the suggested recipe here: I used organic beef broth, but added about half a cup of mushrooms and onions that had been left over from a batch I had sliced and sauteed for another recipe. I also threw in a little chopped sage, fresh from the garden. Then the covered pot went into the oven for about two hours. Halfway through, I rotated the meat layers. 

Instead of making mashed potatoes which seem to be the standard accompaniment to Swiss Steak, I again took the fast route and put half a bag of Ore Ida Golden Fries on a cooke sheet in the oven. My mother always made real Beef Stroganov over shoestring potatoes, so I piled my fries on the plate and topped them with Swiss Steak and the now thick and creamy mushroom and onion gravy. My husband pronounced the combo fabulous, and rechristened the dish "Swiss Steakanov." He said that this take on Swiss Steak is a new creature entirely, moist and tender in a way that most midwest Swiss Steak is not. 

I think it's time for me to cook around a bit more in the Good Eats cookbooks. Thanks, Alton!

Comments

[Darin]

So cool to meet Alton Brown!

I still have to say I'm prejudiced against swiss steak, but your pictures look pretty delicious.

[Annie]

Try this recipe. I have made it twice now, and it is melt in your mouth fabulous! Would Alton steer us wrong?