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 crisp a pound of streaky bacon, take it up and keep it warm.
2. Make the fat bubble all over, then lay in it a steak, wiped clean, seasoned with salt and pepper, and dredged lightly with flour.
3. Sear it well on both sides. Take it from the fat, lay it on a broiler, and cook for ten minutes, turning once. Serve thus if you like it rare.
4. If instead you want it well done, set the steak on a rack or broiler in a hot oven and let it cook there for fifteen to twenty minutes, according to thickness.
5. Meantime dredge more flour into the fat, let it brown a minute, then lay in large, mild onions thinly sliced. Fry to a light brown and serve around the steak.
6. Serve the gravy separately, adding to it just before taking up a little hot water, and shaking the pan well.
7. Variation: fry sliced tomatoes and green peppers finely shredded along with the onions, or instead of them.
8. Or cut large, very meaty tomatoes, unpeeled, into thick slices; pour off the gravy, lay them in the hot, greasy pan, season well with pepper and salt, and cook five minutes, turning them and seasoning the other side. Lay the bacon on the tomatoes — otherwise put it around the steak outside the onions.