Serious Eats: Recipes
Cook the Book: Country Fried Steak and Gravy
[Photograph: Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn]
I think we've already established that Mary Mac's Tea Room by John Ferrell is a wealth of stick-to-your-ribs, hearty Southern recipes. But I'm pretty sure that this recipe for Country Fried Steak and Gravy is the most serious plate of food in the entire book, and should only be tackled by those those who feel no guilt when met with a deep fried steak topped with a gravy made from meat drippings and plenty of butter.
The CFS, as it is affectionately known, is made from the inexpensive cube steak, which is dredged in seasoned flour and then shallow fried in your choice of vegetable oil or butter. I chose to let calories be damned and went with butter figuring that the gravy would be much tastier that way. Once the steaks are fried on both sides they are transferred to a baking dish and topped with a roux-based gravy heavy with onions and browned bits from the steaks. The steaks bake under the gravy for about 15 minutes and the onions caramelize slightly on top.
While the steaks that come out of the oven are well done to say the least, they are still moist thanks to the butter-heavy onion gravy, by far my favorite part of the dish. Some sort of starch (mashed potatoes are preferable) is a must for this dish since it would be a crime to waste even a little bit of the gravy.
Win Mary Mac's Tea Room
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Mary Mac's Tea Room to give away this week.