Oven-cooked round steak. Because squirrel is not available.

For years I've been blaming my mom for giving me this book, but when I finally took a good look at it, I realized I must have bought it myself. The clues are: it's a signed copy, and the author grew up in Medford, Oregon, where I have visited on repeat vacations since the (mumble-- mumble, um '80s). I was probably charmed by a small town restaurant with a folksy gift shop. This was when I lived in Los Angeles and fantasized a lot about leaving the big city.

Weirdowlbooks.com says: "Spiced with bits of poetry and illustrated throughout with drawings and halftone prints taken from turn-of-the-century primers, The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen is a book to be read and savored." Alas, not by me. All I did was buy it. Until now!

Does anyone know a good substitute for squirrel? I'm curious about the Squirrel Pot Pie, and during the Depression I might have been willing to "dress" a squirrel, and maybe even eat it. But not now.

Luckily there are other recipes. Let's go with Oven-Cooked Round Steak.  A bargain-bin cut of meat that needs a lot of tenderizing, dredged in flour, browned, and cooked in milk (the opposite of kosher.) The recipe is posted at the end of the blog.

You know it's a vintage recipe when you're expected to brown meat in frying margarine.

And when's the last time you used one of these? ------>

The specific direction: "Pound in as much flour as the meat will hold." 

 Gotta admit, that part was fun!

(Before you assume I'm a heathen -- in fact I paid top dollar for this beef at Whole Foods, because I don't like the idea of feed-lots. But sometimes you might just want to get it on sale. I don't judge.)




Results:  easy preparation, pounding notwithstanding. Guess who had seconds? Chris, the resident male teenager. A born pioneer. Sides were potatoes and turnips mashed together with butter and salt, sprinkled with crumbled bacon (another recipe from the same book -- a good pairing.) And fresh green beans.



 Recipe is below -- and scroll to the bottom to see the author's signature, "Combining the future with the past."


Oven-cooked Round Steak