Tender Braised Swiss Steak

Swiss steak is a braised beef recipe traditionally made with thick pieces of beef round, although you can also use chuck shoulder steak. The point of this dish is to use a tough cut of meat (such as mock tender steak), as a couple of hours of slow braising will tenderize it very nicely. In the Deep South or in the U.K., this beef presentation is also called smothered steak.

Although the Swiss steak name of this dish sounds like it hails from the European Alpine country, it does not. It is named for the tenderizing process of "Swissing." Some Swiss steak recipes call for using thinner cuts of meat which are run through a meat cuber or "Swissing machine," which is how cube steak is made for the purpose of tenderizing it. This type of mechanical tenderizing helps break up the connective tissue, making it easier to chew.

But this mechanized process is not necessary since braising is going to tenderize the meat anyway. Also, since using a cuber requires thinner cuts of meat, you do not want that. It takes away from the succulent, satisfying result you get with a thicker steak.

Beef round, if you are not familiar with it, is a cut of beef that comes from the rear leg and rump of the animal. As such, it gets a lot of exercise, which makes it tough, because the more exercise a muscle gets, the more connective tissue develops around the muscle fibers.

Some recipes call for you to dredge the meat in seasoned flour before browning it and then braising it, which only browns the flour, not the meat. Instead, directly brown the meat. It develops a lot more complex flavors than merely browning the flour.