For this I have lots of trivia to impart. Swiss Steak is not Swiss, as in from Switzerland. “Swissing” is an English term for flattening meat, as you do here. Why the term is called “swissing” I don’t know. The official name for Switzerland is the Swiss Confederation. That is “Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft” in German, the primary language of the country, although French, Italian, and Romansh are also official languages. Informally, lots of people speak something called Schwiizerdütsch, which is German-ish. In Roman times this area was known as the Confoederatio Helvetica, after the Helvetii, the Celtic tribe that Julius Caesar battled against during various Alpine campaigns, and that is why Swiss internet addresses end in .ch.
All this for what is a somewhat mundane beef dish but it is yummy and satisfying. A more common way is to dredge the steaks in a flour/spice mix, brown, add most of the ingredients here with the steaks to a casserole dish, and pop it in the oven for 2 hours or thereabouts. I do that too, but here is a skillet version.
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1 lb. round steak or cube steak, a lesser cut of beef in any event
A little oil, maybe 1 tbsp.
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
Some celery, chopped
1 lb./2 cups San Marzano whole, peeled tomatoes, cubed yourself
1 cup decent tomato sauce
[Writer’s note: If you have a surfeit of tomatoes from your garden this recipe is a great way to use ‘em up]
Any other spice you’d like to add, like garlic powder, paprika, I don’t know. Not too much though. 1/2 tsp. let’s say.
A little cornstarch on standby
Try to get 4 equal-sized steaks out of your steak. Your butcher could do this for you, or keep an eye out when you’re buying this in the supermarket. They should be no thicker than 1/2 inch, so “swiss” them into shape. Salt them as much as you want.
Put them in a skillet big enough to hold all the steaks and ingredients and first brown the steaks over medium-high heat. Put them aside. In the same skillet, sauté the garlic, celery, and onion for about 4—5 minutes. Put the San Marzanos (I am a complete convert and a “stan”; where is my spon con check?) and your tomato sauce in the skillet, add the spices if you want (stir if you do this) and add the steaks back in. Bring all of this to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and let it go for 1 1/2 hours–2 hours. The meat should be fork tender. If you think your sauce is a little bit too runny mix a little cornstarch with some cold water, 1:2 ratio, not too much, 1 and 2 tbsp. should do it, and add that and stir for a couple of minutes and see how thick it gets.
It’s best to serve this over, not with, a starch, so pick egg noodles, plain white rice, or mashed potatoes. If you have a Ravenous Hound about, give him some plain white rice in the kibble bowl, slice off a little of the Swiss Steak, and scrape as much of the tomato mix off as you can, because a responsible dog haver wouldn’t feed a dog too much tomato, although a little cooked tomato is supposedly OK.
I used to like Swiss steak, it was an edible use of inexpensive meat back when I was young and poor.
Yeah I was reading through and like …. replace the tomato sauce with a few cans of beef stock and add a bay leave and some chopped potatoes and this was the go-to “hearty winter meal made with cheap cuts of beef” meal my parents made when I was growing up.
This is a fantastic way to make cube steaks, by the way.
But add a few glug glugs of (cheap) red wine because reasons.
The original recipe I wrote had you marinate the steaks for a few hours in red-wine based liquid, to tenderize them, but so many of my meat FYCEs involve liquor I thought for this one I’d give it a rest!
I remember this food from two places… my least favorite frozen dinner and from the dorm cafeteria at university.
Gotta admit that Swiss Steak night was when I decided to eat out for a change.
Now, I’ve admittedly done this when I poorly picked a tough cut of beef so I get the appeal.
The story of Swiss steak is similar to how some enterprising Texans invented Chicken Fried Steak; a tough cut was beaten with a hammer/mallet and fried to a crisp then covered with a biscuit gravy.