In this video, join Nicole as she dives into her grandmother’s 1940s cookbook to recreate a classic recipe: Swiss Steak, also known as Smothered Steak. You might be wondering—does Swiss steak actually come from Switzerland? The answer is no! "Swiss" in this case refers to the technique of "swissing" the meat, which involves tenderizing tougher cuts like a rump roast.
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00:00Have you ever heard of Swiss steak?
00:03It's an old school, retro comfort food
00:06that's super simple to make,
00:07brought to you by the 1940s and my grandmother's cookbook.
00:12Swiss steak is sometimes called smothered steak,
00:15and that's exactly what it is.
00:16We're gonna pound it, we're gonna get it nice and tender,
00:18and then it simmers in a tomatoey vegetable kind of sauce.
00:21It is called Swiss steak,
00:23not because it is from Switzerland.
00:26It involves the technique of swissing your meat,
00:29which is tenderizing it, basically.
00:31What's good about this recipe and the old school days
00:34is that it's always made with things
00:36that are a little on the inexpensive side.
00:38So what's great about this versus steak,
00:41you purposely use a tougher, cheaper cut of meat.
00:45This is not a time to break out a filet mignon.
00:48I'm using a rump roast,
00:49which is actually the top part of the round,
00:52but any of the round cuts are gonna be your cheapest,
00:56so you can get bottom round,
00:57or just eye of round, or whatever.
00:59It was a little pricier just because it was so big,
01:01but anyway, still way cheaper than a steak.
01:03I'm gonna cut off some of this extra fat,
01:05because we don't need it.
01:06But most of the time you can find those round steaks
01:09that are already cut into little rounds.
01:12They're less than 10 bucks a pack, I'm fairly certain.
01:15So good way to feed the family, a nice hearty comfort meal.
01:18So I'm gonna cut this into steak-ish sizes,
01:22and then we're gonna pound it thin.
01:24Once you pound this out, it stretches further,
01:27so I could totally get two meals
01:29out of one roast for my family.
01:31I should also mention that I've never made this before,
01:33so we're exploring the 40s together.
01:36I mean, I have eaten this before,
01:37because my mom did used to make this.
01:39I was asking her, you know,
01:40did she know of any vintage kind of recipes,
01:43because with the way prices are these days,
01:45if you go back and cook like they did in the 30s, 40s, 50s,
01:50they didn't have, you know, all that fancy stuff,
01:52so it is naturally going to be less expensive
01:55to cook this way.
01:56And when I asked my mom, did she know of any,
01:58she got real excited and started listing a whole list.
02:00So if you like this recipe and wanna see more,
02:02we can just make a whole series of vintage recipes.
02:06So swissing the steak means we're just going to tenderize it,
02:09pound it thin, so I'm gonna put it in some plastic.
02:12I'm going to use the side with the holes first.
02:15You wanna kind of create little pockets in there
02:18for, you know, everything to seep in
02:20and start breaking it down.
02:21You could also use cube steak here.
02:24You know, that is like real cheap
02:25and already kind of tenderized for you a little bit.
02:29But anyway, we're gonna poke some holes
02:31and then I'm going to turn it on the other side
02:32and flatten it out a little bit.
02:36Between the two sheets.
02:40Feeding it down like that is just kind of breaking up
02:43some of those fibers that are in there,
02:45and that is just gonna really help tenderize.
02:48I hope that's tender enough.
02:49Now the rump roast is already more tender
02:52than, you know, the iron round
02:54because it just has a little more fat.
02:56Meeting is adjourned.
02:58Okay, this is going to be plenty.
03:00So I still have all of this leftover that I will,
03:04if you know me, you know where this is going,
03:06to the freezer.
03:07This is enough to probably do like
03:10a nice little pot of chili.
03:11If you're not freezing leftovers, you're doing it wrong.
03:15Saves you so much money.
03:16Okay, so this is my dad's mom's cookbook
03:19from 1942 or something.
03:22It's like the only colored page in the book.
03:24Tucked away in here are my parents' marriage photos.
03:28And who's that girl?
03:31They're Swiss steak, right above goulash.
03:35If you haven't seen my goulash episode,
03:37you should go back and watch that.
03:38All right, Swiss steak.
03:39We're talking one, two, three, four, five ingredients.
03:44This was my inspiration, this recipe.
03:48And then we also have a top-rated recipe
03:50at allrecipes.com.
03:52Gonna kind of combine all those
03:54and make the best Swiss steak.
03:55All we do is dredge our steaks in some seasoned flour,
04:00which is just going to be salt and pepper.
04:02It's like a little bit of garlic powder.
04:04Can't just deliver a mediocre recipe.
04:06Every recipe always had paprika in it, and my grandmother.
04:09It also helps with the browning.
04:11I do imagine that food was maybe a little under seasoned.
04:16I just feel like it probably lacked a little bit of,
04:19but we're not gonna have that problem.
04:21So I'm gonna take our steaks
04:23and just coat them lightly in the flour.
04:25Any recipe that's called like smothered chicken or whatever
04:28starts out like this.
04:30It's all about browning and then simmering.
04:32And the flour helps create a nice thick gravy.
04:35These are going to be pounded and rested.
04:37And then I'm just gonna chop up a few more vegetables.
04:40I wish we were live so I could ask y'all
04:42like what vegetables you want.
04:43What do you think is fair to include?
04:46Like if I add too many,
04:47are you gonna tell me it's not authentic?
04:48So at the end of the day,
04:49I think Swiss steak is a combination
04:51of steak meets pot roast.
04:53All right, so green bell pepper, onion, tomato.
04:57I saw somebody put mushrooms in it
04:59and that really looked good.
05:01I don't know how classic that is.
05:02I'm gonna kind of do like a strips
05:05and then cut the strips in half.
05:06Also green bell peppers are going to be the least expensive.
05:10So far, besides the meat,
05:11we have spent maybe two or three dollars.
05:14Did you know this is how you do it?
05:18Did you know that?
05:20These have been around forever,
05:22but it's like no one knew how to really use it.
05:24Everybody goes like this.
05:27I don't know, I think I'm gonna be a rebel.
05:29I think I'm gonna bring the mushrooms into it.
05:30I really wanna highlight the steak name
05:33and we love mushrooms with our steak.
05:35So I'll make it optional.
05:36That way if you don't want it, you don't have to complain.
05:38I shouldn't have put that carrot in my mouth.
05:40That's really it.
05:41That's all the prep.
05:42Everything else happens on the stove.
05:43But other recipes I'm referencing
05:45say to pound the flour into the meat.
05:48I didn't know about that technique,
05:50but it might make a difference.
05:51So I'm gonna do that.
05:52I'm just gonna give it one more little pound.
05:55I'm creating the nooks and crannies with the flour in it.
05:58And that's going to allow for a little more crispiness,
06:01a little more browning.
06:02Okay, to brown the meat,
06:04I'm going to use vegetable oil
06:06because that I know is what they used to use.
06:09Lard, Crisco may also be a thing.
06:12So I'm just going to coat the bottom.
06:15Let's get your skillet really hot.
06:16Now this is something that can be made in the oven
06:18or on the stove top.
06:20You've seen me do pot roast before
06:21and that goes into the oven.
06:23Even though the flavors are similar,
06:24I'm gonna cook this one on the stove top.
06:26You could also, after this step,
06:28move it to a slow cooker.
06:30Just saying.
06:30All right, so I'm just gonna go in with my meat.
06:33We're gonna have to do this in stages.
06:35I might have done a couple too many.
06:37If you've got a lot of hungry kids,
06:39especially those teenage boys, they can eat.
06:42This is a good one for you
06:43because it won't break your back.
06:44As it's cooking, you can see how the meat
06:46has already started to shrink up.
06:48So when we pounded that meat,
06:50we broke up those tissues and fibers.
06:53And then when those hit the heat,
06:55they just tighten back up.
06:56All those proteins love each other.
06:58But then when we go back to slow cook them,
07:00they're gonna get a little more relaxed again.
07:02That's what you have to do with these tough cuts of meat.
07:04Now the recipe just says after they're brown
07:06to add in the veggies right on top of the steak.
07:10Again, that's just because the technique
07:13might have been a little lacking back in the day.
07:15We wanna do this step because they get brown,
07:19which is caramelization.
07:20Caramelization equals flavor.
07:22Adding in the optional mushrooms.
07:24The veggies also, as they cook,
07:25are going to help lift off some of that flavor
07:27from the bottom of the pan.
07:29All right, you can see how much flavor is developing.
07:32None of these recipes add more salt and pepper here,
07:35so I'm not.
07:36And now I'm going to add in the tomatoes.
07:39Stewed tomatoes and the acid from here
07:41is gonna lift up the rest of the flavor.
07:46Carrot overboard.
07:48That is the gist of the dish.
07:51Now we marry it all together.
07:52Now this is called Swiss steak,
07:54but it's also called smothered steak.
07:55So we have to smother the steak.
07:58Even though we achieved that crispy crust,
08:00kiss it goodbye.
08:01I'm gonna get them in here and then kinda smother them.
08:05And then don't dare throw away the juices.
08:08According to the recipe,
08:10we're just going to simmer this for about an hour and a half.
08:12I don't know if it'll be tender enough at that point,
08:14but we're gonna try that.
08:15All right, so cover, and I'm gonna reduce it.
08:18We don't want it to boil.
08:19Keep it on a simmer.
08:20You have an option on how you wanna serve this.
08:22So we could do mashed potatoes.
08:24Egg noodles is probably what my mom did.
08:27I'm just gonna do rice
08:28because that just sounds really yummy to me.
08:31But you definitely need a vessel
08:33to soak up all the goodness.
08:35She's done.
08:36It has been an hour and like 45 minutes.
08:40So I did go a little longer
08:41because at an hour and a half, they weren't quite tender.
08:44Let's see how I did on my first time making Swiss steak.
08:49Oh wait, I almost forgot something.
08:50You gotta have the appropriate vintage garnish.
08:53Do you know what I'm about to pull out?
08:54If you said curly parsley, then you're right.
08:57All the vintage pictures and stuff.
09:00This is the main decoration.
09:02It actually has nice, earthy, fresh flavor.
09:04Okay, now we can serve it.
09:06Down with the rice.
09:08I need to taste the sauce.
09:10Make sure we don't need any seasoning.
09:12Because remember, they do not season much.
09:18It's delicious.
09:19Does need more salt.
09:23And probably more pepper, so let's just.
09:27All right, let's get my steak out.
09:31And then lots of all the good stuff.
09:34I think the mushrooms added a nice touch.
09:37There we have it, Swiss steak.
09:39How'd we do?
09:40I think we did pretty good.
09:41And I, for one, am excited to try this.
09:46Okay, not too bad.
09:48I don't think a butter knife would cut it, but.
09:54Very tender, actually.
09:56I was not expecting that.
09:57Wow, it has that pot roast flavor.
10:01And those slow-cooked veggies.
10:02It doesn't look like it's gonna be tender, but it is.
10:04Swiss steak is the next meal you should make
10:06for your family for a weeknight meal,
10:09a Sunday supper, or even for company.
10:11It's that special.
10:13And, best part, you can make it on a budget.
10:17Telling you right now, this is probably full of treasures.
10:19We should probably do more of these.
10:20A lot of people thought I brought the Bible to work today.
10:23Might be the new food Bible.