Beefsteak with Bacon and Onions

History

"Beefsteak with Bacon and Onions" is recorded in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913). A pound of streaky bacon is fried crisp and set aside warm; the fat is made to "bubble all over," and a steak — wiped clean, seasoned with salt and pepper, dredged lightly with flour — is seared well on both sides in it, then moved to a broiler and cooked ten minutes, turning once. She leaves the finish to the eater: serve it there if you like it rare, or set it on a rack if you want it well done.

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular preparation.

"Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" is a mixture of recipes and plantation reminiscence. McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War, and the book's affection for that world goes unexamined in it: its dedication is "to our Mammys," and its opening holds that being "the best fed people in the world" let "we of the South Country... put up the best fight in history." Much of the cooking it records is the work of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black women the book does not name.

Ingredients

• 1 pound streaky bacon
• steak
• salt
• pepper
• flour
• large mild onions
• hot water

Instructions

1. Fry the streaky bacon crisp in a heavy pan and set aside to keep warm. Make the fat bubble all over the pan, then lay in the steak (wiped clean and seasoned with salt and pepper), dredged lightly with flour. Sear it well on both sides.
2. For rare steak: Remove from the fat and lay on a broiler, cooking for ten minutes and turning once.
3. For well-done steak: Transfer the seared steak to a rack or broiler in a hot oven and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on thickness.
4. While the steak cooks, dredge more flour into the remaining fat in the pan and let it brown for a minute. Lay in the thinly sliced onions and fry to a light brown.
5. Serve the steak with the fried onions around it and the crisp bacon on top or arranged outside. Serve the gravy separately, adding a little hot water just before serving and shaking the pan well to incorporate the drippings.
6. Variations: You may fry sliced tomatoes and shredded green peppers with the onions or instead of them. Alternatively, cut large, very meaty unpeeled tomatoes into thick slices, pour off some gravy, lay them in the hot greasy pan, season well with pepper and salt, cook for five minutes while turning and seasoning the other side. Lay the bacon on the tomatoes or arrange it around the steak outside the onions.