Friday, June 06, 2008

A lazy meal
--Cube Steaks with Hasty-Tasty Sauce



Cube Steaks with Hasty-Tasty Sauce
The Good Housekeeping Cookbook Copyright 1963

Buy (don't steal or borrow!) 4 small cube steaks (about 1 lb.). Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and 3 tablespoon flour. In 3 tablespoons hot fat (I sprayed the pan with olive oil spray) in skillet, brown steaks quickly on both sides. Remove.

To fat left in skillet, add 1 teaspoon dry mustard, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire, 3 tablespoons chili sauce or ketchup and 2 tablespoon lemon juice. Heat till boiling, stirring. (Mine wasn't really 'saucy' since I didn't use 3 tbs. of fat.) Spoon over steaks. Serve at once.

Makes 4 servings.
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It was hot and muggy yesterday. I was glad I had something so simple on the menu. Well, I was going to do something with some potatoes and I was going to make carrots but I just decided to heat up some frozen french fries and use up the leftover cole slaw and pasta salad that was in the fridge and then there's always regular salad if anyone wants it. I admit that it feels good to be lazy sometimes.

I just started buying cube steaks after having them quite often while growing up and then completely forgetting about them for several years. (Well, I think I did buy them every once and a while when I was single.) We only ate them one way when I was growing up - on buttered toast. I'm still not sure if there is an improved use, but this recipe was satisfying and, as I mentioned, simple. Simple is worth a lot these days.

The sauce had a tang from the lemon juice which was nice. If I had used the amount of 'hot fat' the recipe called for, it would have been mellower but I just used cooking spray. I wonder if this is where grandma would have pulled out her stash of bacon grease.

This is a nice, comprehensive old cookbook. It's got over 800 pages and lots of good recipes. Not bad for $3. I wonder if my cookbook guy will have anything for me tonight.

Blast From The Past: Marinated Cube Steaks from November 2007. That's another good cube steak recipe.

Question of the Day: Did your grandmother or anyone else you know keep a can of fat around? (I don't really know if my grandmothers did or not.)

7 comments:

Annie Jones said...

Yes, my grandmothers did keep (and use) bacon fat, my mother and my sisters do, and so do I.

Anonymous said...

When I was growing up my friends mom kept one on the stove. I always thought it was nasty until I realized thats why her food tasted soo good. She put it in everything! I always manage to burn my grease so I have never kept it.

Unknown said...

cMy grandmother did! And my parents kept some in the freezer for a while. I'm pretty sure my aunt does.

ThursdayNext said...

No, but I happily saw the jar of ghee on my boyfriend's mother's stove two weeks ago. :)

Anonymous said...

My Grandmother, my mom and yep, me too (though I keep mine in a tupperware in the fridge instead of in a tin near the stove).

Anonymous said...

I don't remember about my grandmothers, but I'm sure they did. I'm pretty sure my mother did, also. I always have. I don't use it a lot, but some things just call for it.

Jan

Lynne said...

We used to have this growing up! The recipe page in the GH cookbook is all stained from the from the many times this page was opened. Doubt my Mom used bacon fat...I am guessing she used oil. I have the cookbook now and will grab some cube steaks and try it out on my family!