| My mother always used a pop bottle to beat cheap steak into tenderness. So did my granny, and my sisters, and I’m sure my father would have if he had ever made anything as plebian as fried steak. So it was a surprise to me when Philip’s parents not only loved this very homely dish, but thought it something extraordinary. And then, of course, pop stopped coming out in glass bottles. It came in cans, or in plastic bottles (useless for beating steak...) and for years I saved an old coke bottle in the back of my kitchen cupboard just for beating steak. But what goes around comes around, and glass pop bottles became kitsch, and once again you could buy them - at very extravagant prices - in little miniature six-packs. So one Christmas I bought a six-pack of coke bottles, found someone to drink the coke, and gave people their very own pop bottle complete with this recipe as a Christmas present. Since you are viewing this online, you have to find your own pop bottle. |
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INGREDIENTS:
One Pop Bottle - thick greenish glass with a smooth rounded lip about a half inch across
Several cube steaks, or round steaks, or even chuck steaks
Salt and Pepper
Flour
Shortening of choice (olive oil, Crisco, lard, bacon fat etc.)
One to two cups milk
PROCEDURE:
- Place the cube steak on a floured cutting board and sprinkle with salt and pepper and then dust lightly with flour.
- Beat the steak soundly with the open end of the pop bottle.
- Turn the steak over, sprinkle with more salt, pepper, and flour, and pound the other side.
- Repeat until the steak is quite thin.
- Flour both sides well, and set aside on a plate while you pound the next steak.
- When all the steaks are pounded, heat about two tablespoons of the oil or shortening in a LARGE frying pan.
- Add the steaks one or two at a time and fry about two minutes on each side and then remove to a plate in the oven to keep warm.
- When the last steak is removed out of the pan, use a spatula to get all the crusty bits off of the bottom of the skillet. Drain off any excess fat (but leave about a tablespoon in the pan).
- Over a medium heat, add the milk (all at once) and stir vigorously with a whisk until smooth and bubbly.
- Serve the pop bottle steak with mashed potatoes, with the gravy poured over everything!