Q: I got a couple pounds of cube steak from my meat CSA.
What can I do with it other than chicken-fried-steak and Salisbury steak?
Sent by Justin
Editor: Readers, any suggestions for Justin and his cube steak? Also be sure to check out this article from the Times:
• Turning to Cube Steak, and Back to Childhood
Related: Times Top 5: Cheap Steak and Foolproof Fish
(Image: Flickr member Andersedin licensed for use under Creative Commons)
Floral Drink Dispen...

Cut it up and put it in a Yooper-style pasty with potatoes, rutabaga, onions, and carrots!
I like to sauté some onions in a large skillet, sprinkle a little adobo on the steak, brown it on the both sides in the same skillet as the onions, then pour in tomato sauce and a packet of sazon and let it simmer for about 5 - 10 minutes. I serve it with Puerto Rican rice.
We flour and season it lightly, cut into small strips or chunks, sautee/fry it, and use it as a topping for salads. It falls apart easily and works nightly with the other fresh veggies in the salad.
Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich.
mmmm, butter.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/marlboro_mans_f/
I have been pleased with results using it in stir fry dishes and noodle dishes like yakisoba. Cut it into strips with sissors and use just like the un-cubed meats. I've mostly done this with pork cube steaks.
Oh, chicken fried steak, but you can only do this once in awhile, because of the calories/fat factor. But, boy dipped in egg or milk, flour and then pan fried give you some wonderful eating. Mashed potato, green salad, veggie and you are in heaven.
Hearty beef stew.
I never cooked it before reading the NY TImes article linked to up above. Now I'm really happy making the Bistec de Palomilla from that article. Works well with rice, but was nice with platanos, too.
My family has this great recipe called "Swiss Steak". You brown the cube steak on med high heat quickly in a fry pan. Remove from pan. Make a gravy with the pan drippings. Then slice up 3 onions really thin and start layering in a baking dish - few slices of steak, then onions, then steak, repeat. Next mix 1 can of tomato sauce into the gravy and pour over the meat and onions in the baking dish. Bake at 350 for an hour. Serve over rice.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/08/fried-round-steak/
From Pioneer Woman's "Cowboy Food" section!
I always use it to make hash. Add a little tenderizer if you'd like then cut into small pieces. Fry in a little butter or oil with some chopped onion until about halfway done. Drain any liquid from meat. Add some butter, diced fully cooked potato, salt and pepper plus any other seasonings that strike your fancy (We like rosemary and garlic) and cook until potatoes are starting to brown.
Served with hot glazed cinnamon apples this is a favorite meal for my crew.
Hey, that piece is almost the shape of Texas!
We eat cube steak all the time. My favorite way:
Pour a can of cream of mushroom soup into a skillet pan and add a little water (I usually just fill the empty can 1/3 to 1/2 full and mix in as wanted). Turn stove on medium high and put pieces of cube steak (packages I buy usually have 2-4 pieces) in the pan and smear some gravy on them. When pan is good and hot, you can turn it down to medium or medium low and let simmer, turning meat as it browns. It's ready when the middle isn't pink. I usually make rice with this because the mushroom gravy is really good with it. I hate mushrooms, but I still love this recipe.
We also make steakfingers. Cut the meat into strips. Have a separate bowl for eggs, flour and cracker crumbs. Dip meat in uncooked beaten eggs, then cover in flour, then coat in cracker crumbs and cook on medium over the stove. You can make a white gravy for dipping or just use ketchup.
@fourpeass - You beat me to it! My only addition is a little vinegar at the end. YUM!
We just cook it in the pan, then make a mushroom gravy with some milk, flour, drippings, mushrooms, and onions. It's very yummy.
braise it, gets rid of all the stringy connective tissue that seems to be part of cubed steak
This was a bane of my childhood, hated the texture of the always panfried cubed steak
When it came in my meat CSA box last year I determined to find a way to make it edible. Turning it into a braise made a huge difference. Here's a sample recipe from the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/dining/042srex.html
My grandmother won a magazine's recipe contest long long ago with a cubed steak dish. She would line the bottom of a deep skillet with bacon then cover the (raw) bacon with cubed steak (cut into portions). She then layered sliced pototoes, carrots and onions on top along with a good bit of garlic and salt and pepper to taste. She would cover the pan to get the potatoes cooked through and cook for about an hour. The bacon would get crisp and stick to the bottom of the cubed steak. Probably not a particularly healthy dish but it was yummy.