This is one of my absolute favorite meals that my mother made growing up. Tender steak smothered in creamy and flavorful milk gravy, this dish is yet another bit of proof that simple food is often times the best!
My mother says the first time she remembered having this was when she was just a little girl. She was at her grandparent’s house and her grandfather asked her grandmother if he went and got some steak, would she make steak and gravy? Money was very scarce in those days and it was big news that her grandfather was going to get a special cut of meat for their meal!
He left and came back with a paper wrapped package of round steak. Back in the day they didn’t have cubed steak. My great grandmother opened the package and got a saucer out of the cabinet. My mother watched intently as Lela turned the saucer on its side and proceeded to give the meat a good and thorough beating to tenderize it. She then dipped both sides in flour and put it back on the counter where she beat it with the edge of the saucer again before finally cooking it just as I am going to do in this tutorial.
My mother said it was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted and from then on she knew exactly how to make steak and gravy.
I know my saucers are thankful that we can get cubed steak these days though…
You’ll need: Milk, salt, pepper, flour, and cube steak.
Pour just enough oil to coat the bottom of your skillet and heat over medium heat.
You always want to have your oil good and hot before you add anything to it, this keeps your food from getting “greasy” by actually searing it on contact.
Put about a cup of flour in a bowl. Add some salt…
and pepper. Stir that up.
Place a piece of cube steak in the flour and press down a bit to get it good and coated.
Turn it over and coat the other side…
Place in hot oil.
repeat with all pieces.
Brown on each side. Once done, remove steak to paper towel lined plate.
Oooh, see all that dark stuff in your pan? That is going to make the BEST gravy!! Add about 1/4 C of flour to this.
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and 1/4 tsp pepper (feel free to add more to taste, but this is a great starting amount).
Add about 1/ tsp salt….again feel free to add more for your own taste.
Stir that up and continue cooking it on medium heat until the flour gets browned a bit, stirring the whole time. I usually do this for about three minutes or so.
Pour milk into skillet. Turn your heat down to the lowest setting. I start out with about a cup and a half and then add more if I want it thinner.
It will look like this to begin with.
I use a wire whisk to stir this because it really helps prevent lumps of flour and get it all good and mixed up. Cook on lowest heat until it thickens. If it gets too thick, you can add more milk. This will just take a few minutes so stir the entire time.
Put your steak back into the gravy…
Turn them over to coat and you’re done! Now you have two options. you can just take your steak pieces out and put the gravy in a bowl to be served with biscuits or mashed potatoes, or you can do it like my mother did and pour the steak and all into a big old bowl!
Southern Steak and milk Gravy
4 Pieces Cubed Steak
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Milk
Place enough oil in a pan to just coat the bottom, put that on medium heat while you prepare your steak. In a bowl, place 1 C flour and add 1/4 tsp salt and 1/ 4 tsp pepper (more if you prefer). Stir that up. Dip each piece of steak into flour on both sides to get it coated well. Place each piece of steak in pan and cook until good and browned on both sides. Remove steak to a plate while you make your gravy.
Place about 1/4 C flour into skillet with meat drippings. Add a little more salt and pepper and stir this over medium heat until the flour is slightly browned (just a few minutes). Slowly pour in 1 1/2 Cups of milk, stirring constantly. Continue stirring, with a wire whisk to help with lumps, over low heat until thickened and there are no lumps. This will happen rather quickly. Add a little more milk if you prefer thinner gravy. Return steak to the pan and turn to coat with gravy on both sides.
Serve steak and gravy together in a bowl or serve gravy on the side to go with Mashed potatoes.
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OHHHHH!!! YUM!!!!
I have not had this in forever! I will definately give this one a try! I hope all is well with you Christy!! Thanks for the great recipes and I CAN’T WAIT to get my cookbook!!!
Hey Treva!! I’m doing well, just crazed busy trying to get both blogs set up so posts still run on a regular basis while we are in Disney. My son told my mother yesterday “My mom has been really busy lately, she hasn’t got to spend a lot of time with me.” ~sigh~
He’s so dramatic. Oh well, if a week in Disney doesn’t cure that, nothing will!!!
Let me know when you get your cookbook! hope everything is going well with my doublemint twins!!!!
I know what I am having for supper! My DH will be so pleased!
OOO…Christy, you just made my day. I could eat this or chicken fried steak and gravy ANY day. Such an advantage of having a southern daddy and a northern mama. I get the best of both worlds(but I still like the southern cooking the best. Keep em coming, I plan on making this for supper SOON
Ohhh, I do love some fried cube steak, we had it for dinner on Monday….I do mine just a little different, in my flour, I add seasoning salt, then batter and fry, and I don’t like milk gravy so I make water gravy, just like you make it but I put water instead of milk….Hubby loves it too…
and about the meat tenderizing, I still do that, my Mama taught me to do it with a saucer too….easy!
I like to tenderize my steak that I am going to cut up with lots of different veggies, also cut up, and put it in a big grill pan(pan with holes) and add olive oil and seasoning salt and just stir it over the grill until the veggies are crisp tender…
I am loving your blog and recipes..
thanks
Brenda
What a coincidence! This is a my favorite meal too only I substitute chicken for steak and dumplings for gravy. Ok just kidding, we have it a lot and I fix it in the same manner.
I have the Salisbury steaks from MommysKitchen in the slow cooker as I write. I added potatoes for the dad man. It smells really good.
Christy I love steak and milk gravy. I so forgot about this meal. I am adding it to the menu so i dont forget to make it. My mother used to do her meat the same way with a plate its so funny all those old things they used to do.
(Billgent) I have a meat and potatoes man myself (my husband) so i know how it is. He doesnt venture out to much. He and I are so different I will try everything and he sticks to meat and potatoes. Boring!!!! sometimes theres no changing them.
Linda! YAY! I would be pleased, too. Can I come over?? Hehe.
You know the drawback is I made this a few weeks ago and am just now posting it. Oh my goodness I want some so bad right now!!!
CityCowboy: Thank you! I just love it when you comment! You know, I held on to this one for a couple of weeks, wondering if I should post it or not. I didn’t know if it was too country or simple for folks. I’m always thrilled at the response I get when I hesitate to post something and finally do, y’all come through for me every time!
Dragonlady: You know, my MAMA Was just telling me today that Lela (great grandmother) usually made her gravy for this with just water! What a coincidence! Doesn’t seasoned salt just make everything better? How funny about the saucer!!!! I can’t believe so many people have this in common! I had never heard of it before!We must have all been raised right!
Thank you so much for reading, Brenda!!!
Billgent: Let me tell ya, you are going to love those Salisbury steaks. I hope you made plenty! The first time I made them, I made a double batch thinking we’d have leftovers the next day, BOY WAS I WRONG! They were engulfed!
You’re funny, Mr. Substitute! LOL
Tina: You know about the saucer thing, too??? Wow! I have GOT to call Mama and tell her about this! Don’t you just love our heritage?
This looks SOOO freakin good! My hubby is a salisbury steak fan and not crazy about cube steak so not sure I can get him to try this one. I sometimes wonder if he really is a true GA southern boy he’s so picky! lol
April! I know JUST WHAT YOU MEAN! My husband is from Atlanta and he won’t eat milk gravy!!!! I swear I think that boy was dropped on his head repeatedly as a child!!
Yummm! I grew up eating that too! It brings back such memories. And reminds me that I haven’t made it in a long time.
Must add to Football Sunday menu soon.
Donna: If I ever decide to take up football, I know whose house I’m watching the games at!!!!!
That looks so good! Can I come have dinner at your house? ~puppy dog eyes~
Stephanie: I would DEARLY LOVE for you to have dinner at my house!! ‘Course, that means I get to eat at your house, too! LOL! I need to get rich so I can throw a big old dinner party and fly all of y’all in!
Oh, and surprisingly, the puppy dog eyes worked! I am usually immune
Christy
Christy,
I hope you have a recipe that I am needing. Its for Banana Split Cake, I remember it had a graham cracker crust, pineapples, and chopped walnuts and a cool whip frosting. My Grandmas neighbor gave me the recipe, but, I lost it when I moved to Houston. If ya dont have it, maybe another reader might. It is SO GOOD and I would love to make it again.
yummy…..looking forward to my cookbook too!
grocery shopping tomorrow….guess what we are having for dinner!!!!
City Cowboy: This comes straight from Granny Jordan’s recipe file!
Banana Split Cake
2 C graham cracker crumbs
1 lg container cool whip
1 lg can crushed pineapple (drained)
3 eggs
3 sticks margarine
maraschino cherries
1 box confectioner’s sugar
3 or 4 large bananas
Chopped nuts (your preference)
Slightly butter 9×13 inch pan.
Melt stick of margarine and mix with two cups of crumbs, spread over bottom of pan.
Beat with electric mixer: 2 sticks margarine, sugar, and three eggs for at least five minutes.
Spread over crust mixture.
Slice bananas and layer over mixture. Drain pineapple and put on top of bananas. Spread cool whip over pineapple. Sprinkle nuts on top.
Score into squares and top each with a cherry. Chill at least one hour before serving.
*You can tell this recipe is old because of the raw eggs. You just don’t see that nowadays. However, in looking back over other folk’s version of this, they all seemed to follow the same recipe and raw eggs were always present. My personal advice: Don’t serve it to teeny tiny children or folks who have been around long enough to hear personal accounts of the war between the states and you’ll be fine!
Sounds great!
I’m going to fix this in the next week or so!
I think I was raised on coffee gravy and tomato gravy. Oh, yum. Just mentioning gravy makes me miss my Grandma soooo much!
hey whats coffee gravy??
hey Jane! thanks! Let me know how it turns out!
Deanna: I need to do a Southern Plate logo: Southern Plate: Coz we miss our Granny’s!
I miss mine too……
oh my this looks so so so good! Mouth watering good even… MMMMM! Thank you for sharing~
Well its official now, Im coming for a visit….lol.. I have a hubby who was raised in Los Angeles, who REFUSES to eat “cubed steak”… I sooo miss this stuff!!!…. thanks for the memories girl!
Hey girl,my name is Heather and I want to tell you that I love your blog…I have a question about the steak. Can I use a roast instead or will this not work, I dont have cube steak on hand but I do have a 2 pound roast maybe this is a dumb question but have to ask cause I really want this Mon. night for supper. Thanks for all the great recipes.
Hey its me Heather , I need to correct myself its not a roast its chuck steak boneless. so if you think it will work please let me know Thanks
Hey Heather! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to respond to this. We are in Disney World and its difficult to get time on the computer!
I have honestly never tried it with anything other than cubed steak myself. However, if you tenderize it really well, it should still work in theory. Get it super super thin, like cubed steak and beat the living mess out of it! ~grins~ Trust me, this is good for any pent up aggression you may have and you’d be surprised at how therapeutic it can be!
Hope this helps and thank you for reading southern plate!
Christy
Hi,
I’m just now getting around to letting you know I made this recipe this past Monday night (I didn’t post about it though)
The only thing different I did was open a can of Cream of Mushroom soup and mix it with a can of milk and did that for the gravy…of course I had to add extra milk.
Hubby was crazy about it!
Thanks for your lovely memories and pictures that make me sooo hungry!♥
Made this tonight. What a great flavor. This is the same recipe (who’s grandma actually wrote it down?) as we had as kids. Really have enjoyed your blog! I have some great memories and food I would like to share from growing up in rural Mississippi.
I made this for dinner tonight. Another hit! I also made bicuits and a healthy side of brocolli.
We had this for supper last night & my kids enhaled it. Served it with my ‘famous’ mashed potatoes, top pick peas from my dads garden, & pioneer biscuts. MAMA, YOU GOTTA MAKE THIS EVERYDAY! I could not believe I had NOT made it for them before. My hubs said I made it quite a bit when we first married but when the kiddos came along it sort dropped off my rotation (maybe I thought it was too hard to eat for the little ones?) but it’s for sure on their fav list now. It was a tried & true choice when I was growing up. And my mother dumped it all in a big bowl, too. Sweet memories.
Oh what a memory this is for me. My momma use to make this some Sundays for dinner. Oh how we loved this with mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and big old biscuits!
She would make it with round steak and beat it till it was so tender. Gosh I can taste it now…this is going on the menu for this weekend! Yummy!
[...] Southern Steak and Milk Gravy: This is one of my absolute favorite meals that my mother made growing up. Tender steak smothered in creamy and flavorful milk gravy, this dish is yet another bit of proof that simple food is often times the best! Recipe found at Southern Plate. [...]
Are you married? Every guy wants to find someone just like Mom and I think you’re the one!! You cook just like Mom did!!!
Keep up the good work!
yummy! My Mama(R.I.P.) taught me how to make it this exact way! I have to say, I don’t always use milk lol..I do use water sometimes!
I raised 2 brothers after she died, and THIS was their fave meal of mine! usually served with either mashed potatoes or rice
I usually used her iron skillet too..just something about it made it taste better haha
My Dad also just died 2 weeks ago(mama 14 1/2 yrs ago), and re-connected with my half sister. She said my Dad made this same meal! I can’t wait to show her this!
Thank you for sharing your recipes and life with us! Your writing is fabulous!
oh and I had never heard of the tenderizing the meat with the side of a saucer lol
interesting! My granny probably did it that way also, but she isn’t around anymore either:(
I make this all the time for my family. I also sub the beef for chicken and make a fried chicken breast with white gravy. SOOO GOOD. This is the way my Mom cooked for us growing up. I now cook the same way for my family. I have 2 stepkids and they never knew was GOOD cooking was until they met my Mom and myself. They thought good food was Tamales out of a can or a good deal on the burgers at the local McDonalds! YUCK!
This is very good. We have fixed it for years. I like to do mine the same way you do yours except that I add a little ground cyanne pepper to the dredge. My wife and I also have store bought teeth so I will place the steaks into the crock pot after browning for about 2 to 2-1/2 hours on low to make the cube steak more tender.