Pounded Round Steak with Garlic Pan Gravy
Beat the steak flat at home, fry it in garlic at camp, and build gravy in the same pan.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 69
- protein
- 48 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Thin-cut round steak or venison round | 1 lb | 1/4 to 1/2 inch; pounded and portioned at home |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1/2 cup | half goes into the meat, half thickens the gravy |
| Garlic | 7 cloves | chopped at home, or 2 tbsp dried minced |
| Cooking oil | 3 tbsp | |
| Beef bouillon | 2 cubes or 2 tsp base | replaces carried stock |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1 cup | the gravy needs somewhere to go |
Method
- At home: dust the steak with flour, pound it hard with a mallet, flip, flour, and pound again. Cut into serving pieces, bag, and chill in the cooler.
- In camp, heat the oil in a heavy skillet and add the garlic. Keep the heat moderate so it goes gold, not black.
- Lay in the steak. About a minute and a half a side. Pull it while it is still soft. Crisp means overcooked.
- Set the meat on a plate and pour off all but a spoonful of oil.
- Return the pan to heat, add 300 ml of water and the bouillon, and scrape the browned bits loose.
- Whisk 2 tbsp of the remaining flour into a few spoonfuls of cold water, stir it into the pan, and simmer until it coats a spoon. Salt and pepper it.
- Make the potato flakes in your mug with hot water. Steak over potatoes, gravy over both.
Round steak is lean and stringy, and the mallet is the whole point. Pounding shortens the muscle fibers and drives flour into the surface at the same time, so the meat tenderizes and gets its crust in one step. Store-bought cubed steak is machine-tenderized and never comes out the same.
This one needs a cooler and a real skillet, so it is a car-camping or basecamp dinner, not a pack dinner. The changes from a kitchen version are small: the pounding and chopping happen at home, bouillon and water stand in for carried stock, and instant potato flakes replace boiled reds. That keeps camp down to one pan and one mug.
Packing
Pound and portion the steak at home. It is a mess of flour dust and it is not worth doing on a picnic table. Vacuum-seal or double-bag the pieces and keep them cold. Flour, bouillon, and garlic ride in one small bag; potato flakes in another.
Variations
- Venison round works identically and is the reason this recipe exists in hunting camps.
- No cooler: swap in freeze-dried ground beef and skip straight to the gravy and potatoes.
- A splash of red wine into the hot pan before the water deepens the gravy.
https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/round-steak-the-other-good-meat.8458