Post by Glen Carman aka Delmonico on Mar 24, 2019 13:15:10 GMT -6
Chicken Fried Steak/Country Fried Steak/Breaded Pork Loin
I have been asked several times if what we today call Chicken Fried Steak or Country fried steak is a 19th century dish? The trouble is it’s not a true yes or no answer; both terms seem to be from my research, from the early 20th Century. What seems to be the real answer is the dish was not uncommon but it didn’t have the same name, if you pound a piece of meat, chicken, pork, beef or veal, bread it and fry it, the French call it escalope, in the Germanic languages it is schnitzel, piccata in Italy, and has other names in other languages.
Chicken Fried Steak is considered Texas food and is very popular down there, but I really have my doubts that its origins were down in Texas, but came over with settlers from Europe and perhaps were made popular by those with Germanic roots, where the schnitzel is a common dish, the Wiener Schnitzel (Veal Schnitzel) being the most well know and a popular dish in this country in German restaurants.
So as to the story of it having it’s origins in Texas, a lot of Germans came into central Texas and settled before and after the Civil War, well the schnitzel came in with them and beef was cheap in Texas, tough range longhorns, so a pounded, breaded and fried steak would fit right in with the local cuisine, someone somewhere decided a sauce on top would be good, we call it cream gravy, but it’s just white sauce made with drippings. So to be fancy we can call it: Rindfleisch schnitzel mit weißer Soße (French: escalope bœuf à la sauce blanche). So did they call it that, who knows, but remember the first references to chicken fried steak pop up around WWI. Is it possible that the anti-German sentiment that was causing towns to change names (Like Berlin Nebraska to Otoe) perhaps made it change its popular name?
Would the popularity of pork over beef in the 19th Century in the Midwest United States make the similar pork cutlet more popular than the chicken fried steak in that region, we may never know, but these are my thoughts on it.
The dish itself is really not that hard, yet I find in restaurants it is a hit and miss as to how good it is, and it does not matter if its pork or beef, the biggest problem I see is the meat has been tenderized too much. What many do is to go to the store and buy what is known as cubed or chopped steak, it’s easy because it has already been tenderized. But in my opinion it in most cases has been tenderized too much, this is why I prefer to do my own with a meat hammer, I get that feel for how tender it is, I want to loosen the fibers in the meat, not to break them down. If one gets the meat tenderized from the store, for a large group, order it and explain to them you want it just run through enough to loosen the fibers, all it needs is run through the machine less. With a good cutting board and a good meat hammer (Yes the one in my picture is aluminum, it was the late 1890’s the day I took the picture) it really does not take long to get the meat pounded to where you want, by doing this one can buy the wholesale cuts of meat and cut them yourself and save about 50% on average.
For beef, bottom round, is often traditional, mostly because this is the least tender cut of the three muscles on the round, but top round, eye of round and even well trimmed sirloin will work just fine, I look for cost when I buy, for pork I buy a whole loin. I cut the meat about 3/4 inch thick and then pound it enough to just loosen the fibers.
As for the actual recipe, this is going to be another one of those that I’ll give several ideas and you do what you want to do. If you go look up recipes with any of those three names you will get a lot of variations like a lot of recipes have, but if you look at them carefully they are really pretty much the same. Most involve beaten eggs and some milk added, the tenderized meat is soaked in the mixture and then floured in seasoned flour, the seasoning being salt, pepper and what ever else the cook desires. The proportions per pound of meat are 1 to 2 eggs, ½ to ¾ cup of seasoned flour, some dredge the meat in flour then the wash, then flour again, the meat is them fried and cream gravy is made from either the dripping or sometimes from browned, crumbled sausage. No matter how exactly it is made, it will be good.
I make mine just a little different, and it has always been a hit, it makes things a little easier and gives a nice thick crust, of course one can double, triple or go beyond the proportions listed, it’s just easy to work out the amounts from 1 pound of meat which will serve 2-3 people in most cases.
1 pound meat tenderized (see above)
3 beaten eggs
2 cups of flour seasoned to taste
1 cup of lard
Place the meat in a large bowl and cover with the beaten eggs and mix well, cover the bowl and let the meat soak in the eggs for ½ hour to an hour.
When ready heat the lard in a 12 inch skillet or dutch oven, remove the meat and dredge well with the flour, when the lard is hot, simply fry the meat one side at a time till golden brown. Remove and cover in a warm dutch oven if making gravy of the drippings or prepare sausage gravy while the meat is soaking in the egg.
Serve with gravy covering the meat.
I have been asked several times if what we today call Chicken Fried Steak or Country fried steak is a 19th century dish? The trouble is it’s not a true yes or no answer; both terms seem to be from my research, from the early 20th Century. What seems to be the real answer is the dish was not uncommon but it didn’t have the same name, if you pound a piece of meat, chicken, pork, beef or veal, bread it and fry it, the French call it escalope, in the Germanic languages it is schnitzel, piccata in Italy, and has other names in other languages.
Chicken Fried Steak is considered Texas food and is very popular down there, but I really have my doubts that its origins were down in Texas, but came over with settlers from Europe and perhaps were made popular by those with Germanic roots, where the schnitzel is a common dish, the Wiener Schnitzel (Veal Schnitzel) being the most well know and a popular dish in this country in German restaurants.
So as to the story of it having it’s origins in Texas, a lot of Germans came into central Texas and settled before and after the Civil War, well the schnitzel came in with them and beef was cheap in Texas, tough range longhorns, so a pounded, breaded and fried steak would fit right in with the local cuisine, someone somewhere decided a sauce on top would be good, we call it cream gravy, but it’s just white sauce made with drippings. So to be fancy we can call it: Rindfleisch schnitzel mit weißer Soße (French: escalope bœuf à la sauce blanche). So did they call it that, who knows, but remember the first references to chicken fried steak pop up around WWI. Is it possible that the anti-German sentiment that was causing towns to change names (Like Berlin Nebraska to Otoe) perhaps made it change its popular name?
Would the popularity of pork over beef in the 19th Century in the Midwest United States make the similar pork cutlet more popular than the chicken fried steak in that region, we may never know, but these are my thoughts on it.
The dish itself is really not that hard, yet I find in restaurants it is a hit and miss as to how good it is, and it does not matter if its pork or beef, the biggest problem I see is the meat has been tenderized too much. What many do is to go to the store and buy what is known as cubed or chopped steak, it’s easy because it has already been tenderized. But in my opinion it in most cases has been tenderized too much, this is why I prefer to do my own with a meat hammer, I get that feel for how tender it is, I want to loosen the fibers in the meat, not to break them down. If one gets the meat tenderized from the store, for a large group, order it and explain to them you want it just run through enough to loosen the fibers, all it needs is run through the machine less. With a good cutting board and a good meat hammer (Yes the one in my picture is aluminum, it was the late 1890’s the day I took the picture) it really does not take long to get the meat pounded to where you want, by doing this one can buy the wholesale cuts of meat and cut them yourself and save about 50% on average.
For beef, bottom round, is often traditional, mostly because this is the least tender cut of the three muscles on the round, but top round, eye of round and even well trimmed sirloin will work just fine, I look for cost when I buy, for pork I buy a whole loin. I cut the meat about 3/4 inch thick and then pound it enough to just loosen the fibers.
As for the actual recipe, this is going to be another one of those that I’ll give several ideas and you do what you want to do. If you go look up recipes with any of those three names you will get a lot of variations like a lot of recipes have, but if you look at them carefully they are really pretty much the same. Most involve beaten eggs and some milk added, the tenderized meat is soaked in the mixture and then floured in seasoned flour, the seasoning being salt, pepper and what ever else the cook desires. The proportions per pound of meat are 1 to 2 eggs, ½ to ¾ cup of seasoned flour, some dredge the meat in flour then the wash, then flour again, the meat is them fried and cream gravy is made from either the dripping or sometimes from browned, crumbled sausage. No matter how exactly it is made, it will be good.
I make mine just a little different, and it has always been a hit, it makes things a little easier and gives a nice thick crust, of course one can double, triple or go beyond the proportions listed, it’s just easy to work out the amounts from 1 pound of meat which will serve 2-3 people in most cases.
1 pound meat tenderized (see above)
3 beaten eggs
2 cups of flour seasoned to taste
1 cup of lard
Place the meat in a large bowl and cover with the beaten eggs and mix well, cover the bowl and let the meat soak in the eggs for ½ hour to an hour.
When ready heat the lard in a 12 inch skillet or dutch oven, remove the meat and dredge well with the flour, when the lard is hot, simply fry the meat one side at a time till golden brown. Remove and cover in a warm dutch oven if making gravy of the drippings or prepare sausage gravy while the meat is soaking in the egg.
Serve with gravy covering the meat.