Salisbury Steak Story

So we've been rather desperate around here in the food department. Granted, my mom and dad got us a bunch of supplies to help with the new baby, but we still haven't been to the grocery store ourselves since the baby was born. Coming up with actual meals has been an increasing challenge. So one night I told Mitzi that I was thinking about making Salisbury steak, because it seemed like something we could make from scratch. Mitzi asked me if we had the right meat to do it, to which I responded, "Don't you just make it with ground beef (of which we have an abundance)?" She smiled wryly at me and said, "...No." Then the gears of my memory started to turn and I too remembered that you don't just make Salisbury stake with ground beef. Mitzi started laughing at me and I started getting a tad embarrassed.

Then I thought to myself, "Who cares if I don't have fancy Salisbury steak meat?! Why can't I just use ground beef?" However, Mitzi is still not altogether confident in my cooking abilities, which is probably at least partly due to my brazen willingness to deviate from the recipe, something that she is loath to do.

Come Sunday night, I found myself at home alone as Mitzi and the baby had gone to Grandma and Grandpa Beal's to get some help in their illness since I has started working and was only available a few hours a day. So I thought to myself, "Now is my time to try my hand at ground beef Salisbury steak - plus I don't have anything else I could make that I could legitimately call dinner." But 'twas not to be. Jory and Hart generously invited me over for dinner.

But Monday night was finally my chance. My meat was already defrosted, and we didn't have anything else on the roster. Plus, I had just read my sister Carole's blog where she had tagged people for recipes. Apparently she and Aaron eat homemade spaghetti even more than we do. So Carole, this one's for you - and to prove to Mitzi that I do enjoy cooking, because she laughed aloud when I put that on my 100 things list.

Here's what I did: 1) Take your defrosted ground beef - the same you would use for your spaghetti sauce, and make it into 1-4 square patties (depending on how much meat you have). 2) Get a ziplock bag and put in 2-3 tbsp of flour to coat the patties, and then throw in your seasonings as well for flavor. I used garlic salt, Lawry's seasoned salt, pepper, and dried, minced onion (as we didn't have fresh onion). *Note: Be careful how much salt-like seasoning you put in as mine turned out just shy of too-salty. Mix all of these ingredients in the bag by simply shaking it up, and then dump it out on a cooking board. 3) Coat the patties, both sides, in the seasoned flour. 4) Have 2 tbsp butter simmering in a pan, and once patties are ready, add them to the pan. 5) Flip the patties a couple of times, browning both sides. You may need to squish the patties with your spatula to make sure they are getting cooked all the way through. I also added the leftover flour topping to the patties each time I would flip them to make sure they had enough flavor (often when I experiment I am too conservative on flavorings and end up with blandness - not this time). 6) Once the patties are looking pretty well browned and cooked, and the butter and juice is running out, add some beef broth (I used the canned kind) and let it simmer for a few minutes. This will create your gravy (which to me was a complete, but pleasant, surprise). 7) Add tater tots and you've got it! Poor Man's Salisbury Steak!


I was so proud of how it all turned out. I forced Mitzi, the unbeliever, to try and she actually liked it, though she agreed it was a tad salty. Anyway, happy kitcheneering.