Cooking the perfect round steak

After those last two posts, I need something a little lighter (and a little shorter).  Food is always a good topic and I'm celebrating a little cooking success, so it's time to share!

My mother was an excellent cook and she cooked almost every night since eating out was a treat and only done occasionally.  I was a picky eater, very picky, and to be truthful my mother cooked a lot of stuff when I was young that I would not eat even today.  I will not elaborate on what was on the menu in those days, but things did get better as I grew older.  By the time we moved to San Antonio in 1969 she had added tacos to her recipe box; they were something I experienced in the public schools of Southern California and brought home to her.  She had also picked up her excellent spaghetti sauce recipe while we lived there; it came from the wife of one of Daddy's flight school buddies who just happened to be stationed at the same base. 

The recipe box increased when we joined a small Presbyterian church that had Sunday night church fellowship dinners several times a year.  The ladies of the church were fabulous cooks and knew how to spread out the food, oh yes!  My sister and I still reminisce about those meals and the many dishes that were offered.  King Ranch Chicken and Chicken Tetrazinni plus many other casseroles as well as salads and desserts became family favorites, even today they are favs.  My sister and I have also reminisced about how wonderful it was to come home from school and walk in the door to the heavenly smells that came from the kitchen where our evening meal was being prepared.

One of the best smelling things Mama made was a pan fried round steak. She didn't make it real often, but I was always glad to come home and find that we were having round steak for supper.  As a novice cook I asked her for the recipe; the answer was that she didn't have one.  She told me to just brown it and let it simmer.  No matter what I did mine never came out like I remembered hers.

Last Saturday while in the meat section of the grocery store I saw a small package with three pieces of tenderized round steak.  It looked so good, and of course, I instantly thought of Mama's round steak.  After contemplating the package of meat I decided to give it another try, I just couldn't pass it up.  After I got home I kept thinking about how hers looked and running through what I know about cooking now.  So here's what I did:

Lightly seasoned flour with salt and pepper, dipped each piece lightly in the flour mixture just to coat it.  Then I browned it in Crisco oil (not the solid) over medium heat, flipping it several times.  I covered the pan and turned down the heat after it was fairly brown.  I let it simmer for over 45 minutes, turning occasionally and adding a little water.  Toward the end I decided to add some green bell pepper and white onion (Mama didn't add these, but I like sautéed vegetables so decided to add them in).  The result:  delicious, just like Mama's!  I probably could have simmered it a little longer as it was tender, but could have used just a little more tenderizing.

Why did it turn out like hers?  Well, I think part of the success was in just using a light coating of flour and in using the oil rather than the solid shortening to fry it in. But I think the main reason lies in the pan that I used - it was one of my mother's and I honestly think that made the difference.  She cooked with copper bottomed Revere ware pots and pans, so did I but mine were newer.  She had a round pan and a square pan; I seem to remember that she used the round one for the round steak, but the round pan is long gone.  I had brought the square pan home when we closed her house and use it frequently. In past attempts I had used my Revere ware pan as well as the much-loved iron skillet, but my steak had never turned out right until I used her square pan.  And, yes it does make a mess on the cooktop, but who cares when your steak is perfect!