RECIPIE: My Mother's "All Meat Meal"

When I was in 6^th grade, my Mother made an all meat dish. I don't recall what was in it and she wouldn't let me try it. (I had too much the bad reputation for not liking "new" food and she said it was too expensive to waste on me. She didn't give in and since I was "too young to wash dishes", I didn't have the opportunity to salvage any from the left overs...

I got hamberger and my whinny little brother (Jim) was given a nibble. I bitched to my Mother about this and she replied with perfect Mother logic this isn't any of your business. Naturally, little brother Jim "teased" (OK, fucking harrassed) me about this.

Anyway, her meal consisted of various pieces of meat, marianated and rolled into a roll and baked. I seem to recall it had thin beef steak, thin pork (ham wouldn't fit), maybe some dressing and deboned chicken (this was decades before "boneless skinned chicken" was available. I now (the day after) recall she baked this in the oven at 325F for maybe four hours.

My version consisted of:

• two large slabs of "minute steak"
• about a pound of sirloin
• about a pound of boneless pork chop
• four stripes of boneless skinned chicken

I marinaded the beef and pork in my Father's Marianade for several hours and then lined a baking dish with aluminum foil. I put one slab of minute steak on the foil, put the sirloin steak over this, the pork chops over the steak, layered the chicken on top of the pork and put the second minute steak slab on top of the chicken. Then, I poured the left over marianade over this and sealed the aluminum foil over it.

I baked it at 325F for an hour, uncovered the meat and cooked for another half hour. The meat thermometer said it was too cool (about 130F). I ended up jacking the heat to 400F and cooking it for another 30 to 40 minutes. We were afraid of undercooked pork so we sliced the roll and microwaved it 'till be felt it was safe to eat.

I then put the left overs (roughtly half the "loaf") back in the oven at 325F and when I pulled it out, it was well done (and job wise, I think I deserved a "well done"!).

The next time I try this, I'll prebake the pork and chicken. That way, we don't have to "overcook" the steak in order to have a "safe to eat" meal.