The Secret’s In the Sauce… or IS it??

One of my all time favorite movies is “Fried Green Tomatoes”. Quite arguably one of the best lines in the film is when Sipsy replies to an Alabama cop who’s just eaten some barbecue of “questionable” origin that he deemed the best barbecue of his life, that “The secret’s in the sauce”. This statement is meant to imply that a great sauce can cover up almost anything–even a dead man!

Last night, I put this theory to the test.

Warning: Do NOT try this at home!

(Yes, DH is still alive.)

For the new year, our family has cinched the purse strings and committed to dining out ONLY on weekends. This means that yours truly has gone BACK in the kitchen, where I’ve been absent for some time, to once again juggle the kids, the dog, the phone and everything else that comes my way while putting together a fabulous and nutritious meal for my family. I figure cooking is like riding a bike, right? So, I took my skills for a spin last night.

As a southern gal, I truly did grow up in the kitchen. However, in my momma’s kitchen–and in Granny’s too– there are NO recipes. You learn to cook from your heart.

In the South, a-pinch-of-this and a-splash-of-that are considered actual culinary measurements. Forgetting that having kids has sucked much of my memory capacity, I decided to try Smothered Beef Tips over Brown Rice last night. YUMO!

It began easily enough. I checked the freezer for steak. (Yes, I’m a meat girl.) The pantry had onions and brown rice. My spice rack had all the seasonings. I was good to go! The steak had just begun to sizzle when Thing 1 came into the house crying that Thing 2 wasn’t sharing the basketball.

So, I dashed outside for a quick referee session. The smell was floating through the house when I got back inside. MMMM….heaven! I flipped the steak and gave the pan a sprinkle of my special seasoning mix then began slicing onions to smother.

The doorbell rings. What NOW??!! Even though there is a NO SOLICITING sign posted in plain view, I behold a door-to-door insurance salesman. I have a dishrag in one hand and a LARGE knife in the other (not to mention that I’m STILL in my pj’s from this morning!). Undeterred but still a bit unerved, he started talking really fast.

I politely listened for a few minutes before stating that I wasn’t interested and headed back to flip the steaks tips. “Uh oh…I need to season them,” I thought to myself. So, I threw in a bigger pinch of seasoning before placing the onions on top, covering it with a lid and lowering the heat setting.

What was I worried about? This was all coming back to me. Hey, I’m even going to throw some beer bread in the oven! (We will discuss that misadventure another time.) Now the dogs are barking to go outside. So I oblige and head to the facilities myself.

Once back in the kitchen, it’s time to de-glaze the pan. That’s how the BEST sauce is made from the pan drippings. I grab the beef stock and pour, de-glaze and cover. What a triumph! Pat on the back for me.

It’s 6pm and I’ve got Thing 1 and Thing 2 in the shower. The rice is done, the bread is cooling on a wire rack and I’m just DYING to taste a piece of meat. All great chef’s do that–taste test their product before sending it out of the kitchen. Or at least, Gordon Ramsey and Emeril Lagase do!

I sneak over to the pan. The steak tips are beautiful and fork tender. I blow the bite carefully so as not to burn myself. When that tender, juicy, saucey meat hit my lips–THAT is when it hits me. The secret is NOT in the sauce! Regardless of how awesome the gravy looked and smelled, it was NOT enough to cover the overwhelming taste of salty meat. I mean salty; I can only describe it by saying that I’ve given new meaning to the term “salt of the earth”.

In my mahem, I had seasoned the meat at least 3 times–that I can recall. And to make things worse, I had grabbed beef STOCK, not broth, from the pantry. However, it DID present beautifully. Here’s the proof.

Another culinary materpiece found only at Chez McRae! I’ll try it again this weekend when I have less going on. It’s the crock-pot for me tonight.