Mom had a few recipes that tasted amazing, this was one of them.

Made with 1/2 inch inch thick beef steaklets that are lightly breaded, short-fried, then slowly simmered in a tomato sauce based gravy until very tender. It was delectable, melt in your mouth tender, and well flavored. This was my parent's way to take any tough cut of beef and make it tender and delicious while stretching the food dollars.

Beef Cuts Used:

Chuck Steaks; Bottom Round; Top Round, Seven Steaks, Hanger Steaks or other beef cuts. Dad would also partially freeze a beef roast long enough to firm the meat (not hard-frozen). Then he'd hand slice serving sized steaklets.

Sprinkle the steaklets with salt and pepper then gently tenderize with a meat hammer or lightly pound with the edge of a saucer. Then dredge them in all purpose flour, and gently pound again on both sides, then fry only long enough to seal and lightly brown the coating. This isn't to cook them done, they'll completely cook done while simmering in the tomato gravy.

Once short-fried, remove steaklets to drain on paper towels. Drain off most of the oil from the skillet, leaving about 3-4 tablespoons in the skillet. Keep all the browned bits and browned flour that settled to the bottom of the skillet. This adds rich flavor and helps thicken the gravy.

Brown a couple of tablespoons added all purpose flour in the remaining 3-4 tablespoons of oil to make a medium brown to dark brown roux for the gravy. Once browned to your liking, remove from heat to cool slightly before adding any liquids.

Open 4 small cans of tomato sauce (best choice) or substitute tomato juice, add this to the browned roux, it will steam, be careful. Stir constantly while this thickens. Then gradually add more water as needed to make a thin tomato gravy. Rinse out the cans to add any extra water. Taste for salt and adjust salt to your preference. Turn heat down to low; around 250°f.

Mom used "Kitchen Bouquet" browning sauce to add a brown color. It smooths the gravy, and adds that one flavor that made it very delicious. She would use a few drops up to 1/2 teaspoon of Kitchen Bouquet. Don't overdo it as Kitchen Bouquet is very concentrated.

Usually when she made any type of brown gravy or sauce, she added a few drops to 1/2 teaspoon of Kitchen Bouquet to make it silky smooth, a lovely brown, and to make the flavor more rich than it would be without it.

Return short-fried steaklets to the skillet of tomato gravy, submerge them beneath the gravy. Cover the skillet and simmer between 250°f and 280°f for 2-4 hours. Some cuts of beef will be tender in 2 hours, tougher cuts will need up to 4 hours to tenderize. Occasionally slide a spoon under the simmering steaks and gently wiggle to loosen them.

The tomato gravy will thicken during this slow cooking time, and take on the flavors of the steaklets. Season with black pepper right before serving. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

Swiss steaks and tomato gravy was always served over rice. But mashed potatoes pairs well with this also.

The best flavors always seem to come from seven steaks, chuck steaks, and hanger steaks.

Mother always used her square 1960's deep electric skillet to cook this. No heating up the kitchen that way, and easy clean up as that skillet was fully immersible.