A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from July 15, 2018
Swiss Steak

Entry in progress—B.P.
     
Wikipedia: Swiss steak
Swiss steak is meat, usually beef, prepared by means of rolling or pounding, and then braising in a cooking pot of stewed tomatoes, mushroom sauce, or some other sauce, either on a stove / log (cooker) or in an oven. In England and in some parts of the United States such as the Deep South, it is also called smothered steak. The dish does not stem from Switzerland, as the name suggests, but from the technique of tenderizing by pounding or rolling called “swissing”.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Swiss steak  n. U.S. a steak (usually round) cooked by dipping in flour, pounding and braising, and served with vegetables; hence, a steak (usually a less tender cut) suitable for cooking in this way.
1932   E. Craig Cooking with E. Craig 175   Swiss Steak… Take a..2 pound slice of steak. Sprinkle thickly with flour. Pound… Brown steak on both sides.
1947   L. P. De Gouy Gold Cookery Bk. vi. 345   Swiss Steak. The original name of this recipe was ‘Schmor Braten.’ It is three centuries old.
     
2 April 1892, Indianapolis (IN) News, pg. 8, col. 3:
Mrs. Nuding’s Cooking School.
The school of hygienic cooking, under direction of Mrs. Nuding, yesterday considered the preparation of meats for the table. Swiss steak, baked mutton chop, roast beaf and pan-broiled steak were prepared.
 
Google Books
Swain Cookery, with Health Hints
By Rachel Swain
New York, NY: Fowler & Wells Co.
1895
Pg. 177:
SWISS STEAK.
Time, 1 1/4 hours. 
Select the best cut of round steak one inch thick. Oil a skillet and heat hot enough to sear the meat, without scorching. Rub the steak with flour, flatten as smooth as possible in the skillet, cook quickly, and turn until browned on both sided. Set it back, cover closely, and simmer (Pg. 178.—ed.) slowly but constantly for an hour, or until the meat is tender, adding a little hot water from time to time. Salt when half done, and turn occasionally. Place the steak upon a hot platter. Add more water to the skillet for gravy, and thicken with flour made smooth in water.
 
June 1911, Table Talk, pg. 308, col. 1:
Swiss Steak
One pound of steak, (Saturday, the third) (In the Daily Menus—ed.), one quart of flour, salt and pepper, four skined tomatoes, one sliced onion, water.  Have the steak cut two inches thick, and pound into it the flour with the sanitary steak shredder.  Put the steak into a skillet, with some (Col. 2—ed.) lard and brown on both sides. Then cover with water, adding the sliced onion, tomatoes sliced and cover closely and let simmer for three hours.  Just before the steak is done add salt and pepper to taste.  When done the gravy is already made and is delicious. Swiss steak, is best prepared with the sanitary steak shredder as it makes it so very tender, and very juicy. The shredder weighs half a pound, and may also be used for other purposes, that will readily suggest themselves to the intelligent housewife, as a fruit or vegetable chopper, potato masher or noddle cutter, each impression cutting a noodle twenty-four inches long. It is practically indestructible, and will last a lifetime.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityFood/Drink • Sunday, July 15, 2018 • Permalink


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