Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:44:48 -0600
Reply-To: mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: camp cookery --was various
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=zPW92bDxzq2sXEo09-SCiELOHZHJXCKSYcv7A@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
---- Al Knoll <anasasi@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Some Chikin fried steak info can be found here.
> http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beef/ChickenFriedSteak.htm
That recipe is how NOT to make true CFS. The egg means the steak is battered, not dredged in flour, whether or not the word dredge is used in the instructions. I didn't get that far, I only had to see the egg in the list of materials needed. To make an actual CFS. one uses only round steak, salt, pepper, and white, all purpose flour. Do not use the "self rising" kind (with baking powder in the flour) recommended in some recipes, either. Old time Texans did not batter chicken, steak, or anything else to be fried. The recipe did get one thing right, the fat in the pan should not be deep enough to cover more than the underside of the steak when cooking.
Now, most of the garbage sold under the name chicken fried steak is battered, nowadays, even in Texas. But that just means that most folks neither know nor care about real good food. When I eat a chicken fried steak, I want the steak, not the coating, to dominate.
And despite the trend in eateries that have more pride in themselves than they are worth, one DOES NOT chicken fry cuts like ribeye, porterhouse, or even sirloin. Only thin cut round is acceptable. Properly hammered (the steak should start at 7/8" thick, finish at 3/8 when hammered), properly flour dredged, and properly fried, it will be fork tender and very flavorful. It will taste like beef, not fried batter.
Once the steak is fried to a proper brown in shallow fat, make cream gravy in the pan. Pour off the remaining liquid fat, mix flour left over from the dredging into what remains, cook on low to medium heat while stirring the bits up from the pan, but do not brown the flour. Then pour in milk (or cream if you don't mind the extra butterfat), and cook down to a pourable thickness, stirring to keep from sticking-burning. The gravy should pour readily when cool enough to eat. And it is properly served on the side, not on the steak -- but most of the eateries in Texas and elsewhere now will cover the so called CFS (with egg batter and deep fat fried) they produce in a kind of glutinous excuse for cream gravy, not even asking the diner if he wants the gravy on the steak or on the side. A properly cooked CFS needs no gravy on it. The gravy is for those who want it, but they can add the amount they want at the table.
Oh well, there have been lots of other things lost from the world, too. Old time diner cookery is a major loss, so far as I am concerned, though.
mcneely
--
David McNeely
| 
