Turning to Cube Steak, and Back to Childhood (Austerity cooking)

NY Times ^ | Published: March 3, 2009 | By KIM SEVERSON

[WorkingClassFilth]

I got while I was processing a deer, but I’ve always liked cube steak (makes great Swiss steak) and we try to make use of the cheap cuts and low price sales with a deep freezer and a vacuum packer. The deer was aged enough (about seven days) so that it’s pretty dang tender without any other treatment.

[nothingnew]

Chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes/pepper gravy.......can't beat it.

FMCDH(BITS)

[tet68]

Look for old fashioned meat tenderizers, the kind with slats instead of points, I find them in thrift stores,
we tenderize our jerky strips with them.

We also use the edge of a heavy platter, it needs to be narrow to break up the sinew.

Meat, it’s what’s for dinner.

[mysterio]

1/4 cup of crushed crackers, 1 can salmon, and one egg white makes a pretty good patty. Actually, five or six really good patties. Those also like mustard, cocktail sauce, or tartar sauce. A delicious way to eat on the cheap.

[Focault's Pendulum]

So it doesn’t refer to the particular cut of beef but the fact that it’s been hammered?

It tastes even better when you're hammered!!!

[Chode]

fried in Worcestershire sauce with some tatters and corn, breaded and fried or cut into strips/breaded and fried, love the cube...

[MayflowerMadam]

Saw something advertised recently — “flap meat”. Sound yukky, but I don’t actually know what it is.

[diamond6]

I’ve been watching Cooking with Clara, depression cooking on You Tube and jotting down all her recipes. Probably going to need them.

[Melas]

Huh? Beef prices are going down. You can actually get ribeyes on sale for just $5 bucks a pound these days. I don’t know how anyone can eat cube steak. I’d just double up on the veggies if that was my only choice of meat.

[Dianna]

A couple of examples are brisket and, most especially flank steak. When so many people discovered how good brisket was when cooked low and slow, or how great marinated strips of flank steak were in fajita’s, the price went up.

No kidding! Two of our favorites and they've become a splurge.

Eye roasts are going up next.

[Dianna]

Chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes/pepper gravy.......can't beat it.

Even better with bacon and cheese sauce. Although, one of these days someone ought to keel over at the table from the fat content.

[Fire_on_High]

We had cube steak for dinner...melt a bit of cheese on top and it’s delicious! First piece goes on soon as it comes out of the pan, second after it’s had a few seconds to get all nice and melty...wonderful lovely cheesy goo.

[Paul Heinzman]

Eye roasts are going up next.

Those are still pretty reasonable, and eye of round makes a great corned beef for sandwiches, so I hope you're prediction is wrong. Once they start taxing meat based on the amount of carbon and methane an animal expels over it's lifetime, the cost of beef and pork will become prohibitive.

I hope that at least chickens don't fart.

[Dianna]

Those are still pretty reasonable, and eye of round makes a great corned beef for sandwiches,

We just used our last one to make french dip sandwiches. I hope I'm wrong too, we love them!

[Mike Darancette]

Man, do you know how to cook!

[Mike Darancette]

They put on display as cube steak if it doesn’t sell in a couple of days then it becomes hamburger.

[Mike Darancette]

Wild pink Alaskan salmon is the bargain of the century at $2/15oz can. I pour a little bit of soy sauce on and some raw onion and eat w/ some good bread. It also likes mustard.

Make Salmon croquettes using a crab cake recepe and serve with deli mustard. --- YUMMMM

[krb]

Thanks for the explanation!

[thecodont]

Problem with these “discoveries” of versatile and highly flavorful cuts of meat, which are always the tougher cuts, is that they become popular and the law of supply and demand drive the price up.

My local Safeway supermarket sells beef soup bones for about $2.50/lb. or thereabouts. I seem to remember a time when the butcher gave them away for free. If they were never free, they were certainly almost free at one time.

[kcvl]

Simple Living

7 Lessons from Grandma

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/04/04sep20f.cfm