Smothered Crock Pot Cube Steaks in Brown Gravy

I've previously written about Swiss Steak, which uses tough cuts of top round or top sirloin beef that have been put through a butcher shop's meat tenderizer and sold as "cube steaks" or "minute steaks." My recipe for Swiss Steak can be found here. Tenderizing in this manner means that the meat is pierced and punctured to make it less tough, which becomes still more tender when braised over a long period of time, the way Swiss Steak should be made.

Somewhere along the way, people got confused about Swiss Steak, confluencing the recipe for Salisbury Steak, and began cooking cube steaks in a brown mushroom onion gravy, calling this Swiss Steak.  This was a culinary faux pas as I wrote about in my recipe for Salisbury Steak, found here. Swiss Steak is cooked in a tomato based sauce, or it isn't Swiss Steak.  That said, cube steak simmered in a Crock Pot with brown mushroom and onion gravy is still a good thing, and in the South, it would be referred to as Smothered Steak.

I would give credit to "the magical slow cooker" website for the inspiration for this dish, but I won't because that recipe has been ripped off and regurgitated countless times on the Internet, using the ultimate can-o-dis ingredients of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, French's Onion Soup and McCormick Brown Gravy Mix, or some variations thereof.  Some websites proudly display their ingredients so you don't miss the point that this isn't really culinary art.  It isn't really even cooking.  It's assembling.

But on this occasion, that's exactly what I needed to do.  I didn't have the time to brown the cube steaks and dice vegetables ahead of time to make my Swiss Steak recipe, so I started with this concept, added a few culinary touches, and left instructions for My Number One Fan to assemble the dish at the appointed hour for ultimate delivery at the dinner hour.

Ingredients
3 pounds cube or minute steaks
1 envelope French Onion Soup (like, Lipton)
1 10.5-oz can French Onion Soup (like, Campbell's)
2 10.5- oz cans Cream of Mushroom Soup (like, Campbell's)
1-1/2 cups beef stock (like, Swanson's or Kitchen Basics)
1 cup dry white wine
2 tbsp Kitchen Bouquet
1/2 tbsp black pepper
non-stick cooking spray (like, Pam)

The Recipe
Cut the minute steaks in half, so you have somewhere around twelve pieces.

Treat the Crock Pot with non-stick spray.  Place the steaks and then all the remaining ingredients in the pot.  Give it a good stir, cover and set the unit on high heat for three hours.  Make sure the steaks are completely submerged in the liquid.  Add a little water or more beef stock, or a 10.5-oz can of beef broth to the pot if necessary.

After three hours, the liquid should be at a strong simmer. Set the Crock Pot thermostat on low, and cook for an additional three hours.  

If you want a thicker gravy, mix two tablespoons of all purpose flour in two ounces of warm tap water and whisk until well blended.  Pour this "slurry" into the Crock Pot and stir into the gravy with an hour remaining on the cooking time.

Serve along side mashed potatoes, over Jasmine rice or hot buttered noodles.