Old Virginia Fried Steak, ca. 1836 ($23)

This is a dish I found in Mary Randolph's 1836 receipt book, "The Virginia Housewife." We have always had requests for chicken fried steak even though in my mind it's more of a Texas thing, and while Texas is in the South it's never really been a focus of our cooking. To the extent you see chicken fried steak in the South, it's usually at a Waffle House or other crappy diner and consists of pre-formed pre-breaded frozen cutlets that are basically pretty nasty, then drenched in powdered gravy mix. Like all modern "classic" dishes gone awry in diners and chain restaurants, chicken fried steak has a history that belies the malaise in which the dish finds itself and can take you back to the time and place where the dish was special and this is where we can understand why any particular dish is famous and beloved. I'm not sure why the fried steak never took off in 19th-century Virginia, but I liked this version so much that I set out to recreate it very authentically, and wound up with one significant change - she instructs the cook to make the fried steak and the gravy, then bake them together for twenty minutes or so before serving. Time constraints of a modern restraunt kitchen aside, I wanted to keep the steak as crisp as possible so it's dressed with gravy upon service. Whole veal legs from Strauss are trimmed and butchered to yield thin cutlets, which are seasoned, dipped in egg wash, and breaded in our house-baked Sally Lunn bread crumbs. The gravy is made by frying onions in a bit of lard then building up a fairly standard pan sauce - brown a little flour well with the onions, add Amontillado sherry, veal demi, and a bit of cream, and simmer just to thicken. We serve the dish with creamed barley and peas, while the texture is creamy the toothsome bit of the barley and slightly crunchy pop of the peas sets off the crispy/creamy steak and gravy much better than your standard-issue mashed potatoes.

Pairing: American orange punch, ca 1829

peas (fresh/specialty), farmer (local/regional), grass-fed, historical dish, homage dish, and veal (humanely raised)