happy birthday
In honor of Almanzo Wilder's birthday today, I made Neta Seal's "swiss steak" for dinner. The recipe is in The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook (1995), page 10. In the margin of the recipe in my cookbook, Neta wrote, "Dear Nancy, I love you. Neta S., friend to Laura." Reading that again was like getting a Valentine a day early.

I used to visit Neta every year until her death, and in 1993, she told a group of us how to make swiss steak. Her verbal recipe was similar to the one in the cookbook, only she didn't mention using garlic, or using milk with the with cream of mushroom soup. She simply said you pounded flour into round steak and browned it on both sides, then simmered the meat in cream of mushroom soup and water until tender, adding salt and pepper to taste.

The Campbell Soup Company introduced Cream of Mushroom Soup in 1934, several years before the Wilders and Seals traveled together by car to California and the Pacific Northwest. I always wondered if Neta originally made swiss steak the traditional way, with tomatoes.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:45 PM